Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 9 November 2014 (i) Dedication of Lateran Basilica

Lateran Basilica

Why on earth does the Roman Church celebrate the Dedication of the Cathedral Church of the Diocese of Rome, the Lateran Basilica? The fact it replaces the Sunday cycle hints that it is not just a feast concerning a building. It must have another meaning which links it to a celebration of Christ! The readings for the feast hint at this image of a building that is a place of holiness because it connects people with God, moving us away from seeing the building as important in itself no matter how beautiful or ancient it might be!

One of my great academic interests has been the study of liturgical art and architecture. I find it fascinating how buildings have been shaped by and also responded to patterns of worship over the centuries, no one ‘style’ can claim to be uniquely Christian because the Church adapted itself to people, places and cultures.

I once wrote a book on the subject, House of God: House of the People of God where I attempted to explore a very basic theological concept, basically that for the Christian all the world is sacred, we do not need to create temples to house our God, as other religious traditions did and do, for wherever we may be, gathered as God’s holy people, we make a place holy by being there, present with the Lord.

This is also built on our baptismal vocation clearly stated by Paul as that of’ being ‘living stones’, each one of us a temple filled with the Spirit and all of us building on the foundation of Christ. This is really what the Church is about, a growing community that is also the Body of Christ, ‘the sanctuary that was his body’ as John calls it in his Gospel.

This feast a symbol of the universal dimension of the Roman Catholic Church spread throughout the world ,linked in faith to the Bishop of Rome as a source of unity. In a real sense the Lateran Basilica is a ‘Mother Church’, not the building so much as what it symbolizes. The Lord has been present throughout history with the community of the Church it represents. It stands for the universal house of the People of God in communion of faith with each other through Peter, it is also a hint of the community of heaven finally united in God.