A Sunday Homily

Still with my blog update about today's Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica. Tonight's mass presider, Fr. Marlowe Rosales, ofm, delivered a nice homily and he was gracious enough to give me a copy (for this blog). Here I go:

"Business and worship have always gone together. They did in the time of Jesus and they do so now. With a slight difference: While in Jesus' time they brought business to the temple, now they bring the temple to business centers (masses in malls, banks, government offices, etc.). Fund-raising activities are a common occurence in our parishes. Attached to most churches are stores that sell religious articles. Parish offices are busy with collection of all sorts (mass intentions, baptisms, weddings, certifications, etc.). Collection boxes are strategically located in every corner of our churches.

Jesus, meek and humble of heart, got quite angry when he saw that there was more business than prayers and worship going on in the temple. And he decided to do something about it: He threw out of there the vendors and money changers. These people were doing a legitimate service to the people by providing the unblemished animals needed for worship and the shekels used to pay the temple tax. What was wrong, most likely, was their overpricing and exploitation.

We read today this gospel about the cleansing of the temple because we celebrate the feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. For over 300 years, Christians had no churches. They met in private houses and in the catacombs. When Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, he made it the official religion of the state and donated to the Church the palace he had acquired from the Laterani family, which was transformed into a basilica - the official residence of the pope. It is thus considered the "mother of all churches."

All religions have places of prayer and worship called churches, mosques, synagogues, ashrams, etc., where God is believed to be present, or where God's presence is more intensely felt. Sometimes they are referred to as "house of God." In the gospel, Jesus calls the temple "my Father's house." We know that God dwells everywhere in the whole wide universe. He cannot be confined to any physical structure, to any basilica or cathedral - no matter how ornate and large it may be. "The Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands" (Acts 7:48). God is present wherever the community is present: "Where two or three are gathered in my name ... " (Mt. 18:20).

It was Jesus himslef who introduced a new concept of temple. When the Jews asked him for a sign, he pointed to his own body as the temple where God dwells. In his conversation with the Samaritan woman, Jesus told her: "The hour is coming when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth" (Jn. 4: ":23). What makes our worship acceptable is not the beauty of the temple but the sincerity of our heart.

St. Paul says as much (in the 2nd reading): "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" God dwells in people, not in buildings. Perhaps this is the reason why Jesus never built any church or chapel nor did he command his disciples to do so. He built and restored people, not structures.

The pastoral implication here is clear: Important as it may be to have a clean and beautiful church, it is by far more important to have a beautiful community. The church building should be a reflection of the community using it. In most parishes, the larget bulk of the budget goes to construction and repairs of the church and convent. Promotion of clergymen is often based on one's ability to raise funds and to put up churches, rather than on visiting the sick or building up BECs. If we really believe that people are God's living temple, then we have to re-assess our pastoral priorities by investing more on people and less on buildings."