We are a people consecrated to God, so we must keep ourselves holy and unified
In the Hebrew Scriptures (1 Kings 8, 2 Chronicles 7) we read of the feast of the dedication of the original temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, led by King Solomon. This temple, which had to be rebuilt several times, was a symbol of unity for the people of God. Solomon dedicated the temple as a house of prayer, and the glory of the Lord came down from heaven and filled it. Solomon dedicated it as a house of prayer for all people, and he prayed that Gentiles from all over the world would come and worship there in the presence of the one true God together with the people of Israel (1 Kings 8:41-43). The people of God were consumed with zeal for his house, and there they all came to worship in his presence and to offer him their sacrifices.
In the Gospel reading today we hear that Jesus too was consumed with zeal for the temple of God. Pilgrims who came to worship at the temple often needed sacrificial animals, and their Roman coins with pagan images were totally unacceptable in the house of the Lord. So the priests of the temple had transformed the Court of the Gentiles into an area for purchasing sacrificial animals and for changing Roman coins into Jewish coins. There was nothing inherently wrong with the arrangement, and it helped the pilgrims to give their offerings and to pay the temple tax. The one thing terribly wrong with the arrangement was that it violated the dedication of the temple area as a place of prayer. The Court of the Gentiles was consecrated as the specific place of prayer for the Gentiles. That area had been dedicated and consecrated to prayer, but it was being used for another purpose.
Our Lord walked in and put a stop to it. He drove out the animals and overturned the money tables. “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace,” he said. The dedication of the temple was important to him, and he demanded that it be honored. He demanded that the Lord’s temple be kept holy, just as the Lord’s day must be kept holy. It is a constant struggle for the people of God, for we are always tempted to take that which is consecrated to God and to use it for some other purpose. This includes not only things and places and times but also ourselves. We too are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in us. We are consecrated to his purposes, and we must keep our bodies holy as temples of God. The Lord’s zeal for the holiness of his house includes his zeal for our holiness, for the holiness of his Church.
Today in the Church’s calendar we celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. This ancient place of worship in Rome was dedicated and consecrated to the Lord not by King Solomon but by Pope Sylvester I, about three hundred years after Jesus died and rose from the dead in Jerusalem. During Sylvester’s reign, the Roman Emperor Constantine legalized the Christian religion, and several basilicas were built in Rome. This was the very first church to be built. The Emperor donated the property, and the Pope took up residence there. For centuries the Lateran was the center of the Catholic world, until the Popes moved over to the Vatican and old St Peter’s, another of Rome’s original basilicas. The Lateran church has been rebuilt several times down through the centuries. On its walls is inscribed its title, “Mother and Head of all the Churches of the City and the World.” It is the mother church of all Christians, and a house of prayer for all people. It is a symbol of the unity of the people of God. To this day it is the cathedral church of the Bishop of Rome. It is the Pope’s cathedral, and his chair is there in its apse. It is the one cathedral that unites all the other cathedrals around the world, where all the other Bishops have their chairs.
On this feast of the dedication of our mother church, so many centuries ago, our thoughts and prayers are directed toward the unity of all Christians. The Pope is the special minister of that unity. The early Christian martyr St Ignatius of Antioch, who was martyred in Rome about 40 years after St Peter, was someone who was consumed with zeal for the unity of all Christians. He wrote seven letters on the way to his martyrdom, and we have those letters. They are his death-bed testimony to Christian unity. He was the first Christian writer to attribute to the Church the word “catholic” or “universal.” As he put it, “Wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.” And St Ignatius taught that in the service of unity to the Catholic Church, the Church of Rome exercises a primacy of love. As he said, “The Church which presides in the place of the region of the Romans, which is worthy of God, worthy of honor, worthy of the highest happiness...and which presides over love, is named from Christ and from the Father....”
In one of his letters to the faithful, Ignatius explains the principle of unity that he had previously taught them, and that had been taught to him by the Holy Spirit. Here is what he wrote:
Though some would have deceived me according to the flesh, yet the Spirit who is from God is not deceived. For the Spirit knows both whence it comes and whither it goes, and it detects the secrets [of the heart]. For when I was among you, I cried out and spoke with a loud voice: “Give heed to the bishop, and to the priests, and to the deacons.” Now some suspected me of having spoken thus because I knew the division being caused by some among you. But He is my witness, for whose sake I am in chains, that I did not receive this information from any man. It was the Spirit who proclaimed these words: “Do nothing without the bishop. Keep your bodies holy as the temples of God. Love unity. Avoid divisions. Be the followers of Jesus Christ, even as he is of his Father.”
Suggestions for Further Reading:
Readings: Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12; 1 Corinthians 3:9c-11, 16-17; John 2:13-22
Catechism of the Catholic Church §574-594, 811-870
Benedict XVI, Wednesday General Audience, St Peter’s Square, 14 March 2007 http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20070314_en.html
https://open.substack.com/pub/thecalltoholiness/p/today-is-the-feast-day-of-the-basilica
© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.