Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran

On Sunday, November 9th, we celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran.  This feast falls on a Sunday this year and so the prayers and readings for the Feast replace those for Ordinary Time.  The Lateran Basilica is located in Rome and was built following the edict of the Emperor Constantine which gave Christians the freedom to practice their religion.  It was dedicated on November 9^th, 324, and is considered the oldest church in the world.  Because of this status, it is known as the mother church of all Christianity.  St. John Lateran, not St. Peter’s, is the cathedral church of the Diocese of Rome, and therefore of the Bishop of Rome, who is the Pope.

The name St. John Lateran is a little confusing.  The church is dedicated to both John the Baptist and John the Evangelist.  The name Lateran refers to the Laterani family who originally owned the property on which the church was built.

Perhaps the Lateran Basilica is most famous for its ancient baptistery—a separate building with a large font built for full-immersion baptisms.  Inscribed in the baptistery is this poem which speaks of the new life born from baptism:

Here is born in Spirit-soaked fertility a brood destined for another City, begotten by God’s blowing and borne upon this torrent by the Church their virgin mother.  Reborn in these depths they reach for heaven’s realm, the born-but-once unknown by felicity.  This spring is life that floods the world, the wounds of Christ its awesome source.  Sinner sink beneath this sacred surf that swallows age and spits up youth.  Sinner here scour sin away down to innocence, for they know no enmity who are by one font, one Spirit, one faith made one.  Sinner, shudder not at sin’s kind and number, for those born here are holy.  They were drenched in grace.

Today is a good day to reflect on these words and to think about our baptism.  For in baptism, we become the very temple of God.  Today’s feast celebrates the dedication of a famous church building.  But, as St. Paul reminds us in today’s second reading, “You are God’s building.”

We, like our church buildings, are sign and symbol to the world of God’s life and love.