Dedication of the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano at Rome

The Liturgy of the Word this morning seems a dazzling blast of images. We are invited to open our hearts to the fullness of the mystery revealed to us in three remarkably symbolic texts that gather meanings- words are used, but the realities are really beyond words. Such is the nature of symbol. How to describe the embrace of one we love, a meal shared, a small kind word or a smile that can erase a hurt, the vision of a sunrise through morning mists or the experience of sitting quietly beside someone as they lay dying? How to describe the nearness of God in Christ through the Spirit in our Church? How to describe what we experience as real but really indescribable? 

If ever you have experienced a friend as refuge, safe haven; their kindness and presence as home and even sanctuary, then perhaps you will begin to understand what Jesus is saying this morning when he refers to his body as temple. 

Saint John Lateran is the pope’s own church, the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome where he presides as the Bishop of Rome. We celebrate this anniversary as a feast of the universal Church, since it is the Holy Father’s own cathedral, and therefore the spiritual home of all believers. See readings for today's Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome, Lectionary: 671 at http://www.usccb.org.