Fr Jack SJ MD: Slaker of Thirst: Homily for the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

Ez 47:1-2,8-9,12

Ps 46: 2-3,5-6,8-9

1 Cor 3:9c-11,16-17

Jn 2:13-22

Water is the source of life and slaker of thirst. Everything on earth depends on it. Human history, both violent and peaceful was, and is, in large part, the story of water and access to it. We have seen, and will continue to see, serious crises worldwide because of periodic droughts. It gets ugly. We can go without food for days. We cannot survive long without water.

Water. Flowing from the Temple in the eschatological promise of Ezekiel.

Water. Making glad the city of God in the Psalm.

Water. Giving us eternal life in Jesus through baptism.

Today's readings reflect the basic and elemental nature of this feast. The Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica is a sign of unity with, the Chair of Peter which, St Ignatius of Antioch noted, “presides over the whole assembly of charity.”

The name of the feast may be confusing. We are not celebrating a building. The Church building of the Lateran was destroyed and rebuilt a few times over the centuries. Facades were replaced and restored. What stands today is not the original. We don't celebrate A Church today. We celebrate The Church.

The Church into which one enters exclusively through the waters of baptism

The Church which can have no other foundation than Jesus Christ.

Jesus, the foundation from whom living waters flow in all directions, to all peoples, if they choose to bathe in those waters. If they are willing to drink of the living water that is Jesus.

Today’s gospel is taken from the second chapter of John’s gospel. It is an interesting chapter in that there is a massive shift in scene and tone from the first and second parts of the chapter. The first twelve verses narrate the wedding at Cana. The thirteen verses that we just heard describe the Cleansing of the Temple at Jerusalem.

In this jump we move from miracle to sign. More importantly, we are forced to confront our notions of who Jesus is and how he acts. For those for whom zeal for God’s house is a relative thing it is an uncomfortable confrontation between their own delicate sensitivities and the reality of Jesus’ fury.

In his splendid commentary on this Gospel the late Jesuit Father Stanley Marrow wrote, “One puzzling aspect of the narrative is how generation after generation can read or hear this account and yet persist in clinging to their cherished image of Jesus. . . . .a Jesus so “gentle and mild” that he is incapable of “overthrowing anything, not even the reader’s smugness. . . . The Jesus in the pages of this or any other gospel is not exactly a standard-bearer for bleeding hearts. . . .the aim (of the gospel) is not to provide us with the biography of an inspiring hero, proportioned to the size of our ambitions, conformed to our ideals, and meeting our currently prevailing notions of what constitutes greatness.”

The Jesus of the gospels is not a Jesus of relativism, a Jesus of accommodation or negotiation. The Jesus of the gospels is not a wimp, a sissy, or a doormat. He did not say to those desecrating the temple, “I’m sorry and I don’t want to offend you but . . . I must ask you to think of what you are doing and to stop doing it . . . if you don’t mind.”

Jesus called a spade a spade. He called sin for what it was and still is. He did not cave to secular society. He certainly did not tolerate desecration of His Father’s house. The Jesus of the gospels acted with force when He had to, thus the flipped tables and the whips. We do well to remember that.

Human life cannot survive ithout water. Without zeal for God’s house, without zeal for preaching His word The Church cannot and will not survive.

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The photos are from St. Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, PA. I made two retreats there, one before ordination and one the following year. St. Vincent is the first Benedictine Abbey in the U.S., established in 1846. The original abbey was destroyed by a fire. In addition to the Abbey. St. Vincent has a college and a seminary. In addition the abbey has been the source of chaplains for Penn State for years. A number of their vocations come from the Penn State.

Of course one cannot mention Latrobe PA without noting that it is the home of Arnold Palmer and, perhaps more significantly for Penn State alumni the home of Rolling Rock beer.