Message of Abbot Paul - Thursday 9th November 2023
Abbot Paul • November 8, 2023
November 9th marks the feast of the Dedication of the Mother Church of Christendom, the Cathedral of the Most Holy Saviour and of Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist in Rome. Saint Peter’s in the Vatican is not the cathedral of Rome, nor are Saint Mary Major or Saint Paul outside the Walls. All four are Papal Basilicas, but the Lateran Basilica is the oldest and highest ranking and houses the cathedra or episcopal throne of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. We say that this church is the Mater et Magistra of all the churches, the mother and teacher. In the year 324, the first church on this site was consecrated by Pope Saint Sylvester I, whose feast day is celebrated on 31st December. So today we pray especially for the Holy Father, Pope Francis, and for the Church and Diocese of Rome. Many churches throughout the world called Christ Church take their names from cathedral church of Rome.
Today’s Gospel from John (Jn 2: 13-22) finds Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem at the beginning of his ministry. He is there to celebrate the Jewish Passover. “In the Temple he found people selling cattle and sheep and pigeons, and the money changers sitting at their counters there. Making a whip out of some cord, he drove them all out of the Temple, cattle and sheep as well, scattered the money changers’ coins, knocked their tables over and said to the pigeon-sellers, ‘Take all this out of here and stop turning my Father’s house into a market.’” Because of the forms of worship that took place in the temple, especially the sacrifice of animals, it was bound to be like a market place, what with people buying and selling. Religion has been a source of work and income for many people since time began. Think of places of pilgrimage you know, Lourdes, Assisi and Rome itself, for example, and it’s the same in all religions. John reminds us: “Then his disciples remembered the words of scripture: Zeal for your house will devour me.” Words from Psalm 68 (69).
The Jewish leaders ask Jesus why he has done this, “What sign can you show us to justify what you have done?” To which he replies, “Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up.” They take his words literally and are confused. “It has taken forty-six years to build this sanctuary: are you going to raise it up in three days?” The evangelist explains, “But he was speaking of the sanctuary that was his body, and when Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the words he had said.” What Jesus is telling them is that the days of the old religion are over, that God had never intended worship to descend to these practices. They have got stuck in the old ways of animal sacrifice, as if that were pleasing to God. He tells the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, “The hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” (Jn 4: 23) Here it is clear that the new Temple is the Body of Christ and the new Sacrifice is Christ himself, true Priest and true Victim. St Paul will go on to develop a new Theology of Salvation and point out that we are members of the Mystic Body, living stones making up the Body of the Lord, Christ Jesus being our Head. The revelation and understanding of this truth began that day when Jesus cast out the money-changers and the cattle, sheep and pigeon sellers from the Temple. St Paul reminds us that we are temples of the Holy Spirit, earthenware vessels that contain the treasure, which is Christ.
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