Mother Church

Feeling at home in the church until we reach our heavenly home

11/09/2018

John 2:13-22 Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money-changers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, "Take these out of here, and stop making my Father's house a marketplace." His disciples recalled the words of Scripture, Zeal for your house will consume me.

There is an ancient Jewish aphorism that teaches: “the temple is to space what the Sabbath is to time.” You may recall how holy the Sabbath day is to Jews and Christians alike. Heck, we even have one whole commandment out of the ten of the Decalogue (it’s number three, by the way), to safe-guard its sanctity, “Keep holy the Sabbath day.” It is on the basis of the biblical concept of creation and resting on the seventh day – and later the Christian addition of Sunday as the Sabbath of the new creation – that the modern work week and the two day rest came to be. We all know how important rest is to our health but also to our holiness, which is why the rock band Loverboy sang, “Everybody’s working for the weekend.”

The Sabbath should be experienced like a little heaven on earth, the moment we put down the tools of our trade (our work), and rest in the Lord, and pay greater attention to our neighbor. It symbolizes, therefore, not only the end of the week but also the end of life. The Sabbath is our ultimate destination, in a word, heaven.

Once your grasp the meaning of the second half of the aphorism about the Sabbath, it makes it considerably easier to comprehend the first half, that is, the significance of the temple. Just like we need to carve a little time out of our week to worship the Lord, so we need to set aside some space in our lives for the Lord. For the Jews the quintessential sacred space was Jerusalem and in particular the Temple. In the Old Testament the city of Jerusalem and the Jerusalem Temple in particular symbolized God’s throne on earth, his chosen palace. That’s why it was so devastating when the Jews were deported to Babylon (they felt kicked out of God’s house), and why it was equally urgent they return and reconstruct the Temple as soon as possible. This is also why the Jews will never stop fighting for full possession of Jerusalem and Israel, and likewise why they feel no need to share it with the Arabs or the Christians. The Sabbath day consecrates time and the Jerusalem Temple consecrates space, and together they both point to a kind of paradise on earth, our ultimate home, the Father’s house.

Today might seem like a strange feast day to most Catholics: the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. Usually our feasts are focused on the saints, but this time it’s a building. Why? Well, because we are all Jewish-Christians, the Jews are our spiritual ancestors, and they have taught us the ancient faith. We read the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. In other words, Catholics can applaud the aphorism: “The temple is to space what the Sabbath is to time.” And for a Catholic, a cathedral always holds a high place among all the churches (the temples) of a given diocese.

The cathedral contains the cathedra, the chair of the bishop, the principal shepherd. The cathedra is where a cathedral gets its name. But the cathedral is also the mother church in the diocese, and therefore, all Catholics are its parishioners. How many parishioners does the Cathedral of St. Andrew have in Little Rock? 122,842. Well, the Lateran Basilica is the cathedral church of the pope, and therefore the mother church of all Catholics world-wide. So how many parishioners does St. John Lateran Cathedral have? 1,285,000,000. I’m glad I’m not the pastor of that church.

But the reason we recognize the importance of a building is because it carves a little space out of this world and leaves it exclusively for God’s purposes. It is for his use alone. Of course, God is present everywhere, but it is always special to spend time in God’s house, just like it is always special when someone comes to your home. You do not let just anyone come into your home, because your most cherished treasures are inside. When someone comes into your home, they sort of step into your world.

Thank you for carving out a little time and a little space for God today by coming to Mass in this holy place. This is a small symbolic taste of the eternal rest at the end of our life of work on earth, when we will step into the Father’s house, heaven, the mother church of all creation.

Praised be Jesus Christ!