Dedication of the St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome 2025 Franciscan Gospel Reflection

Franciscan Friar Fr. Paul Gallagher reflects on the Gospel readings for the Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran.  Are there churches or places that have special significance for you in your relationship to God? Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity celebrate November 9 as our founding day. On this date in 1869 God called us as community to serve others in need in our world. Today, we invite you.

Photos: Martin Falbisoner, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons; Mike Knell, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The content is edited by Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity Sister Anne Marie Lom and Joe Thiel. The excerpts from the Sunday readings are prepared by Joe Thiel. To read or download the complete pdf with excerpts for your prayer, please click here: Franciscan Gospel 2025 November 9 2025. Excerpts are from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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.”

At this the Jews answered and said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.

Background:

It is the Basilica of St. Peter, built over the tomb of St. Peter, that most Catholics recognize and see as the sign of the church’s presence in the world. But it is St. John Lateran which is the cathedral church of Rome. Here is the location the Chair of Peter upon which the pope sits when issuing a teaching that is to be considered infallible and binding upon all the faithful. The celebration of the dedication of the St. John Lateran Cathedral is an important occasion for the life of the Church. Therefore, when the feast falls on a Sunday, the church reflects on readings that are especially chosen for the feast: Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12; Psalm 46: 2, 3, 5-6, 8, 9; 1 Corinthians 3: 9c-11, 16-17 and John 2:13-22.

All four Gospels record Jesus going into the Temple and overturning the tables (Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-18, and Luke 19:45-46). Matthew, Mark and Luke all place the event at the end of Jesus’ ministry, before his arrest, trial and crucifixion. Placed here it seems to explain why the religious authorities of day finally put into motion their plan to have Jesus arrested and crucified. In John’s Gospel, it is the raising of Lazarus that leads to the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus.

Scripture scholars believe John has placed this event at the beginning of his Gospel as a proclamation of who Jesus is. The inner sanctuary of the Temple was the Holy of Holies. It is here that the ark of the covenant was kept. The covenant was what defined the relationship between God and the Jewish people. God was to be their God, and they were to be God’s chosen people. It was from this covenant that their relationship with God flowed. The temple itself became the locus from which that relationship flowed out to all the people and through them to creation. It was as if God’s finger touched earth at this spot and from this spot all the blessings of God flowed. In John’s Gospel Jesus acts with a passion not found in the other texts. “Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all those engaged in selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And he said to them, ‘It is written: ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a den of thieves.’ (Matthew 21:12-13) John includes that Jesus made a whip and the scene recalls a quote from Psalm 69:10 “Because zeal for your house consumes me, I am scorned by those who scorn you.” This psalm was associated with the passion by the early Christians. John also includes here Jesus’ statement to the Jews that if they tear down the temple he will rebuild it in three days. Although they thought he was talking of the physical temple when he spoke these words, we know that he was speaking symbolically of his own body. By relaying this incident from the life of Jesus at the beginning of the Gospel, John is implying at the very beginning that Jesus is the new temple. While the temple played a central role for the Jewish people in their relationship with God, for the Christians, that central role was to be based in the person of Jesus and his cross and resurrection.

Reflection Questions:

1. Are there churches or places that have special significance for you in your relationship to God?
2. What significance does the building of the church have for the people who build them (the designers, the laborers, those who made sacrifices to contribute to its building)?
3. How would your faith community be different without a place to gather, pray, meet, teach and organize?
4. What happens to you when you become angry? How do you feel about becoming angry? Has anger ever been an energy that you have used to do something that needed to be done?
5. In the Gospels, does Jesus become angry often? Can you think of other times Jesus became angry? Can you think of other times he used physical force? How do you feel the physical expression of Jesus in the Gospels?
6. As you listen to this reading, what stands out to you? What do you think God is saying to you in that? How would you like to respond?
7. How does this Gospel shed light on the celebration of this feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome?