The usual sequence of Sunday Gospels is interrupted as the Church celebrates the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica. The Lateran Basilica in Rome is not the oldest church in Rome – but did you know that the Lateran Basilica is the Cathedral of the Diocese of Rome – the place from where the Bishop of Rome, Pope Leo, leads his diocese even as he leads the church universal. The Lateran did not even start out as a church – it was a palace on the Lateran Hill that came into the possession of the Emperor Constantine. Later the emperor gifted it to the church and by 324 A.D. it was converted to become a church and was declared to be the “mother church” of all Christianity: ecclesia omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput – of all the churches in the city and the world, the mother and head. The underground and pilgrim Christians now had a permanent home – and so it has been for 1700 years.

I love the imagery from the first reading: “The angel brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water flowing out…” It is from the Prophet Ezekiel who is speaking to the Israelites exiled to Babylonia. They know that Jerusalem and the Temple are about to be destroyed, but Ezekiel tells them that one is not an everlasting Temple. And so he shares his vision of water flowing out from this heavenly, living temple. It is the water of life. It restores and renews everything. The plants flourish; the fish are plentiful. His message is that the exile will be for a while, but God is with them. Even now the Lord is at work renewing and rebuilding the Temple on a new foundation. No doubt the people wonder “when and where.”