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CURRENT TOPICS: Notes on Mary + God Is Beautiful + Hosea, The Unwanted Prophet+
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9th November – Dedication of Lateran Basilica, John 2:13-22
We celebrate another Sunday Eucharist with a special Feast, Saint John Lateran Basilica in Rome. This anniversary of the dedication of the cathedral church of Rome, on land owned by the Laterani family, was started by Pope St. Sylvester in 324. It is honored as the episcopal seat of the pope as bishop of Rome.
According to an inscription which Pope Clement XII placed there, this church is the mother and head of all churches of Rome and the world. It has been the residence of popes from the 4th century until their moving to Avignon, France. It was also the site of five ecumenical councils. Pope Innocent X commissioned the present structure in 1646 and beneath its high altar rests the remains of the small wooden table on which, according to tradition, St. Peter celebrated Mass.
So, technically the pope has two cathedrals in Rome, where he has his seat, or Kathedra in Greek. The first is where he is the head of diocese of Rome, the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, and the other where he is head of the Universal Church, Saint Peter’s Basilica also in Rome. There are also two other basilicas in Rome, St. Paul Outside the Wall and Mary Major.
Our Reflection from Give Us This Day, Walter Brueggemann, one of the most influential Old Testament scholars of the last several decades, writes,
“Jesus came to the Jerusalem temple and looked all around. He came there because the temple is the citadel of meaning in that society, the symbolic expression of all that is true and good and beautiful, the ultimate hope and desire of his people for the presence of God. He did not like what he saw…The core of faith had been co-opted into aggressive commodity transactions.”
At that time, visitors, especially men 18 years and older, would pay their taxes to the temple. Their pagan money which usually had the figure of the emperor or some god or goddess, had to be exchanged into temple coins without any idolatrous images on them. Not surprisingly, it became a big business where the people lost in the exchange. They also needed to buy their legitimate or kosher animals for sacrifice in the temple, where they also lost in that exchange.
Today’s gospel is from John the Evangelist, Chapter 2, where Jesus views the tables of the money changers and merchants who are selling animals. Not surprisingly, he gets upset! But let’s look ahead to Chapter 4, the Woman at the Well, where she said to Jesus, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand…But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed, the Father seeks such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.”
Jesus proclaims that in the messianic age, which has now dawned, worship of God will not be tied to a holy place. The reader has been told that the risen Lord supplants the Jerusalem Temple, “In three days I will raise it up.” Of course, he was talking about the temple of his body. That does not mean we can just worship at home in our living room with a U-Tube connection to St. Francis de Sales mass and sipping a nice hot cup of coffee in our PJ’s.
We, the body of Christ, come together each Sunday, and with our head of the body Jesus Christ, the Church pays homage to our God through this Eucharistic Celebration. Obviously, the Church through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit has come together as Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, to “Worship the Father in Spirit and truth” throughout the world in our gathering places, or parishes. Just as the Jews after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem gathered in their synagogues to worship in spirit and truth. By the time of Paul, the synagogue was also their place for meetings, and religious training, and even finding jobs with other Jewish brethren in the area.
Walter Brueggemann ends his Reflection. “Imagine the Church, consider your call, to live a life worthy of our calling to God’s purposes and not according to the distorted ambitions of our society. People who depart the life of distortion find themselves floating in well-being, going back into the neighborhood in generosity, going to city hall with courage, living a true existence in response to the faithful gift of God.”
All Souls Day 2025 All Souls Day 2025
GOD IS BEAUTY – BEAUTY IS GOD
“Go Back To Where You Came From!”
Amos, The Unwanted Prophet: Part Three
Complacent Theology: more than ever the elite were confident that Yahweh was with them and that, Yahweh being who he is, the greatest of gods, they were the first of nations. Indeed, there appears to have arisen at this time an expectation that Yahweh might soon act on a certain day to bring them as a people to a position of unprecedented preeminence over all others. It is this complacent theology which comes under attack in several of Amos’ most memorable words.
Soporific Worship: Amos’ abhorrence of these practices in his famous diatribe against solemn assemblies, is transparent. And this is what is wrong with it. In and of itself it may be all right, but it distracts from doing what is really important, what Yahweh really wants. “But let justice flow like water and uprightness like a never-failing stream.”
“I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them…But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.”
“Father,” his son Joshua looks at him. “You look startled.”
“I am son,” Amos replies. “I had another vision.” Amos was speechless but tried to describe what he experienced. “At first I wasn’t sure whether I was daydreaming or having a vision or seeing the real thing.”
“Mother said you had these visions often,” Joshua said.
“This is only the third one.” he said. “I had thought they had ended after the last two.”
“Why is that, father?” Joshua said. “Mom said that the Lord God had relented and it would not happen.”
“This is more shocking than even the catastrophe of Locust and drought!” Amos said still shaken.
“I am afraid to ask what the vision showed you this time.”
Amos begins to explain the vision. “I saw a man standing by a tottering wall. It was a military invasion that would soon sweep through the land!”
“What does that mean,” Joshua asked, “a tottering wall?”
“It came to me that it represents the House of Jacob’s moral condition,” he said. “The high places of Isaac will be ruined, and the sanctuaries of Israel laid waste, and the sword in hand, says the Lord God, I will attack the House of Jeroboam!” Amos felt exhausted.
“Father,” Joshua looks worried, “Why is the Lord God doing this?”
“From what I have heard from our merchant friends from Edom, is that basically good people are being sold by the rich into debt-slavery for piddling sums,” Amos said angrily. “They are the ones who are bringing on this catastrophe that will punish the guilty rich and the innocent poor as well.”
“Our Edomite brothers that pass through our way north know a lot from their travels,” Joshua said with awe.
“Yes they do. From their travels they glean a lot of information that would otherwise be hard to come by,” Amos said. “Unfortunately, unless you live in Jerusalem or are the rich in Samaria, the rest are considered outside the covenant, especially the Edomites and the Moabites.”
Amos continued, “Another reason is that certain oppressed ones who prior to this time had been living on small ancestral estates were now being forced to sell under pressure from an upper class elite who were taxing and cheating them to death.”
“How unjust!” now even Joshua was indignant. “The very ones sold into debt-slavery could have been landed owners like ourselves!”
“Exactly!” Amos replied. “And to make matters worse, the rich keep the cloaks taken in pledge from the desperately poor as collateral for small loans and holding them beyond nightfall!”
“That is expressly forbidden in the Torah!” Joshua added.
Amos was proud of his son for remembering well the teachings of the Law. “And that is why my son we have the Law from God through Moses. Unless we keep the Law of the Lord God, then they are useless, but more important, it will make our people vulnerable to the pagans from other lands around us.”
“Father,” his son asks. “When will this happen?”
“Son,” and now Amos looks him in the face and answers. “I do not know for certain, but it may be soon. All I know is that when the vision is delivered to the North, the Lord God will put into action what he has warned he will do, unless the people repent. By then, all my pleading will have no effect.”
“But, Father, why you?”
“I do not know,” Amos honestly said. “Who knows the mind of God.”
Joshua asks one more time, “Will we be safe?”
“If we put our trust in the Lord and keep his commandments,” Amos said, “we will be safe. The Lord God has promised this.”
Go Back To Where You Came From pt 3
Go Back To Where You Came From pt 2
Go Back To Where You Came From pt 1