Year A
Ezekiel 47:1-2.8-9.12
Psalm 46:2-3.5-6.8-9 (R. 5)
1 Corinthians 3:9c-11.16-17
John 2:13-22
CHANGE COMETH
Today is the Feast of the Dedication of the St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome. The readings raises an important questions; Why do Roman Catholics or Christians spend so much money on Church buildings when it is the people who are the true Church and temple of God? Why are Church walls important? Is there a need to have a Sacred Place to separate the sacred from the profane?
We all have family houses, and these houses makes families feel like one. The family house is a sought of sacred place where parents and children merge into a household. The Heritage of the family is passed on, morals are taught to show that the walls of the family house are more than just buildings, they are beyond mere walls, they are symbolic. They show that there are some limits for the family members, some borders they must not cross, some actions that are not required of them. In fact people live life to defend the integrity of their family house.
The Church Building mirrors the family house, however the family therein is God's family. All those who are the Children of God and part of his household has one family house, the Body of Christ. The Lord or head of this house is Christ Jesus. This is the theology that led to the conversion of St. Paul a zealous Jew into a zealous Christian (cf. Acts 9:4).
I have talked about the fact that the Cross of Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the temple vision of Ezekiel with river of life from the right side flowing. See and compare the pictures below.
And
Since the body of Christ is the temple (Jn. 2:21), and the prophet Ezekiel saw a vision in which an ever-increasing river of water flowed from the temple (ch.47), it is significant that Jesus Christ's side was pierced.
The prophet Zechariah prophesied of a day when "they shall look upon him whom they have pierced" (cf. Zechariah 12:10), and "on that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness" (Zechariah 13:1). St John the evangelist himself refers to this prophecy of Zechariah in connection with the piercing side event (Jn.19:37), this accurately showing that the water symbolizes Baptism. For the blood Jesus Christ already talked about it as the blood of the new covenant and this obviously symbolizes the Eucharist (cf. Matthew 26:28). Baptism incorporates one into the Church, and we give thanks to God for his saving grace in the Eucharist.
But for the sake of today's feast, we are reflecting on the fact that if any change will come at all, it comes from God's temple where God interacts with his people. For Moses, the rock he stroked was the pierced Christ, for Ezekiel, the temple was the pierced Christ and for Zechariah, the fountain was the pierced Christ. The interesting part of all these is that, the pierced side of Christ is the side of the new temple that issues in a torrential river of eternal life, where we are cleansed from our sins, purged from idolatry and all false prophecies quenched.
This is why while the Church building mirrors the family house, our bodies mirrors the Church building. This feast therefore seeks to draw our attention to the fact that we must live our life as the Church building, a sacred place set apart by God for God. Is true that the church’s walls do not make one a Christian. But the walls or borders, delimit the sacred from the profane. Our dispositions in the Church building must influence our dispositions towards our body. The reverence we give to God in the Church buildings must reflect the reverence we give to God in our body which is the temple of God.
Lastly and most importantly, Canon law defines a church simply as “a sacred building designated for divine worship” (CIC 1214). The Catechism of the Catholic Church expands on this describing a church as “a house of prayer in which the Eucharist is celebrated and reserved, where the faithful assemble, and where is worshipped the presence of the Son of God our Savior, offered for us on the sacrificial altar for the help and consolation of the faithful” (CCC 1181).
This is important because Jesus Christ called for gathering at the Last Supper, a gathering where we will meet and remember him in the Thanksgiving sacrifice. Also, as an adolescent Jesus yearned to spend time in Herod’s sumptuous Temple (Luke 2). As an adult, Jesus defended its integrity against the money changers as we read from today's gospel. He knows our generation seeks for signs and the best sign to purge our Idolatry is the Church building.
As we heard from the first reading, the grace that flows from the altar bears us back into the world, changed, and able to change others, bringing healing and bearing fruit. Just as the body has soul with the spirit in it, the Church building is the body and we are its soul with God working in us for the healing of the world. CHANGE COMETH when GOD Spirit flows through the temple to heal the world, change gonna come when we are changed and sent to the world to change or heal it
By Sylvester Amakye-Quayson
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