9 tháng 11-Suy Niệm Lễ Cung Hiến Nhà thờ Lateranô

 9 tháng 11-Suy Niệm Lễ Cung Hiến Nhà thờ Lateranô ở Rome.  Ez. 47:1-2,8-9,12 ; Jn. 2:13-22)

Hôm nay chúng ta mừng ngày lễ cống hiến của Vương Cung Thánh Đường Thánh Gioan Lateranô (*), Vương cung Thánh đường là Đền thánh lâu đời nhất và là một trong những Vương cung Thánh đường quan trọng nhất của Công giáo ở Rome. Trong thế kỷ thứ tư, hoàng đế Constantine, là hoàng đế Kitô giáo đầu tiên thuộc đế quốc Lamã xây dựng. Trong suốt nhiều thế kỷ, nhà thờ đã bị phá hủy, xây lại, mở rộng và tu bổ nhiều lần. Nhưng Đền thờ luôn luôn được công nhận là nhà thờ chính toà của Giáo phận Roma hay nhà thờ của các giám mục Rôma (đức Giáo Hoàng là Giám Mục của Roma). Thánh Đường này được gọi là ‘Mater Ecclesiae Romae Urbis et Orbis’, Mẹ của tất cả các thánh đường ở Rôma và trên thế giới.     Một trong những tính năng nổi bật nhất của Vương Cung Thánh Đường Thánh Gioan Laterano là dòng chữ được tìm thấy khắc trong đền rửa tội của nhà thờ như sau: ". Đây là nguồn mạch sự sống, nhờ đấy mà toàn thế giới được thanh tẩy, qua chính những vết thương trong cuộc khổ nạn của Chúa Kitô"  Đó là một lời nhắc nhở hết sức mạnh mẽ cho Giáo Hội tồn tại để thực hiện các công việc của Chúa Kitô trong thế giới này.
            Trong bài đọc thứ nhất, tiên tri Ezekiel thấy nguồn nước hằng sống chảy ra từ phía nam của đền thờ và chảy ra ngoài đi qua tất cả các hướng. Trong cùng một cảm giác, đó chính là là chúng ta. Mỗi người chúng ta chính là đền thờ của Chúa Thánh Thần, và Chúa Giêsu muốn lấy đầy để chúng ta tuôn trào với những hồng ân của Ngài. Để chúng ta đem Chúa Kitô đến với thế giới, Tuy nhiên, chúng ta phải lặn chìm sâu trong nguồn mạch sự sống của chính mình. Việc cầu nguyện riêng tư, Ân sủng lãnh nhận qua các bí tích, sự khôn ngoan qua Thánh Kinh, tình yêu thương của anh chị em của chúng ta trong Chúa Kitô, tất cả những thứ này là những nguồn nước tưới phun cho cuộc sống của chúng ta. Nếu hoàng đế Constantine, một người có quyền lực nhất trên thế giới Tây Phương vào thời điểm đó, đã có được ơn trở lại qua những gương sáng và sự làm chứng về Chúa Kitô ​​của các tin hữu. Chúng ta hãy tưởng tượng những gương sáng và những gì chúng ta làm chứng kiến vế Chúa Kitô có thể làm được cho những người láng giềng, các bạn bè, và đồng nghiệp của chúng ta. Nếu chúng ta đắm chìm chính chúng ta trong Chúa Kitô, chúng ta thực sự có thể thay đổi cả thế giới hôm nay.
(*) Nên biết rằng đây là đền thờ kính Thánh Gian Tông Đồ chứ không Gioan Lateranô, theo truyền thuyết, Đền thờ này được xây trên trong thửa đất của gia đình ông Lateranô, nên có tên như thế. Chứ trong lịch sử Giáo hội không có vị thánh nào tên Gioan Lateranô.
 
REFLECTION
Today we celebrate the dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica, the oldest and one of the most important Christian basilicas in Rome. In the fourth century A.D., Constantine, who was the first Christian Emperor, built a chapel on land that was given to his wife. Throughout the centuries, that chapel has been destroyed, rebuilt, expanded, and renovated numerous times. But it has always been recognized as the cathedral church of the bishop of Rome.
            One of the most striking features of the St. John Lateran Basilica is an inscription found in the basilica's baptistery which says: "This is the fountain of life, which cleanses the whole world, taking its course from the wounds of Christ." It is a powerful reminder that the Church exists to carry on the work of Christ in the world.
            In the first reading, the prophet Ezekiel saw healing water flowing from the Temple and going out in all directions. In one sense, that is us. We are the temples of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus wants to fill us to over flowing. In order to bring Christ to the world, however, we must plunge deeply into the fountain of life ourselves. Personal prayer, the gift of the sacraments, the wisdom of Scripture, the love of our brothers and sisters in Christ, all of these are their own founts of life for us. If Constantine, the most powerful man in the western world at that time, could be converted through the witness of Christians, imagine what our witnessing could do for our neighbors, friends, and co-workers. If we immerse ourselves in Christ, we really can change the world.
 
Nov 9, Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran
Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, increase my faith. Make my heart a temple for your dwelling place. 
Encountering Christ:
1.      The Passover: The Passover is one of the most important festivities celebrated in the Jewish tradition. Before the existence of the Temple in Jerusalem, it was primarily celebrated in homes by the sacrifice and smearing of the blood of a lamb on the doorposts and lintels. Following the reign of the wicked King Ahaz, his son (and descendant of David) Hezekiah, at the age of twenty-five, sought a reform. He ordered the cleansing of the Temple and restoration of worship after a period of falling away from God (2 Chronicles 29-35). With this act, the Passover sacrifice became a central act in the Temple (around 715 B.C). About one hundred years later, due to the Babylonian exile, the Passover returned to being celebrated in the home, together with the Feast of Unleavened Bread. By Jesus’ time, the two were celebrated together, with the sacrifice of the lamb taking place primarily in the Temple but also in homes due to the exorbitant number of lambs being slaughtered. Jesus “went up to Jerusalem” precisely for this feast, in anticipation of the true sacrifice of the Lamb of God and the institution of the Eucharistic—the offering of his own Body and Blood on the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
2.      My Father’s House: Jesus arrived at the Temple only to discover that his Father’s house had been turned into a marketplace. The secular had encroached upon the sacred. It is a perennial problem. Rather than sacralizing the secular, the secular dominates the primary role of the sacred due to our human tendencies toward personal gain and greed. The Temple’s central purpose, worship of God, was cast aside for social and economic gains. See Jesus’ response—righteous anger fueled by zeal for reestablishing the Father’s rightful place. He would soon be consummated in the sacrifice of himself as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The Temple represents the human heart. Jesus desires to cleanse the idols in our hearts that stand at the center in place of the Father. 
3.      Destroy This Temple and in Three Days I Will Build It Up: The Jews were confused by Jesus’ words, “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up.” Herod the Great had just spent forty-six years enlarging and embellishing the Temple, creating a retaining wall over Mount Moriah, the very place of the binding of Isaac by Abraham, when God provided the sacrifice instead of allowing Abraham to sacrifice his only son. The physical building of the Temple had a tumultuous history. Upon Mount Moriah, King Solomon built the first Temple (circa 990–931 B.C.), but it was destroyed in the Babylonian exile around 587 B.C. King Cyrus, king of Persia, permitted the rebuilding in 538 B.C. Yet, it was plundered, desecrated, and finally rededicated during the Hasmonean revolt of the 2nd century B.C. Not long after Jesus’ prophecy, it would again be torn down by the Romans in the year 70 A.D. Only Jesus could restore the temple so that human hands could not tear it down. In his very person, the worship of God would be restored and centralized.
Conversing with Christ: Jesus, increase my faith in your presence. Grant me the grace to worship in spirit and truth and to recognize that your grace makes me a temple of the Holy Spirit. Help me also to recognize the gift of the sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist, where I can gather in community for true worship. 
Resolution: Lord, today, by your grace, I will reflect on how I contribute to making my heart, home, and Church community places of true worship.
 
Nov 9, Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome
Opening Prayer:  Dear Lord Jesus, I desire to hear your word with an open heart and mind. May it bear the fruit in my soul that you desire. Please increase my faith to see with your eyes, my charity to love with your heart, and my hope to await your action with confidence. 
Encountering Christ:
·         Zeal for the Temple: Throughout his life Jesus displayed a singular connection with and love for the temple. Shortly after his birth, Mary and Joseph presented him in the temple, when, moved by the Spirit, Simeon and Anna prophesied about the child (Luke 2:22-38). Jesus would go annually to the temple with his parents for Passover, and when he was twelve, he remained there three days without his parents’ knowledge to show that he must “be about his Father’s business” (CCC 583). During his public ministry, and especially leading up to his Passion, some of his more significant encounters and discourses were in the temple—such as his defense of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11), his “light of the world” discourse (John 8:12), and his healing of the blind man (John 9:1-41). However, most dramatic was when Jesus drove out the money-changers, the animals, and their handlers from the temple with a whip. “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” He would never cease to defend the honor of his Father’s house with zeal.
·         Worship in Spirit and Truth: While his love for the temple was clear, in his conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well Jesus also said, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father… But… when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him” (John 4:21-23). In this way Jesus not only prophesied about the destruction of the temple but showed that the worship of God would no longer be limited to a particular location. He was teaching that it would be more important to worship united to God in spirit and in truth. Are our parishes and churches therefore irrelevant? No, they remain crucial as places of gathering for the Eucharistic celebration. Jesus is simply emphasizing that our encounter with God must also resonate within our interior—both in church and outside of it.
·         The Temple of His Body: “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.’” The temple of the old covenant has been superseded by the new—the Body of Christ. If the presence of God was real in the temple of Jerusalem, how much more so in the Incarnation of his eternal Son. “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). However, this new temple extends not simply to Jesus’ risen Body, but by extension to his Church: “Christ ‘is the head of the body, the Church… Head and members form as it were one and the same mystical person” (CCC 792, 795). It is hard to fathom the degree to which we are called to union with Our Lord in the Church: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love” (John 15:9).
Conversing with Christ:  Jesus, I believe that the deepest desire of my heart is to be known and loved for who I am. I marvel at how your gift of a profound unity with you in your mystical body the Church responds to that desire. Help me to live such a union with you and my fellow believers conscientiously and generously. Help me to have the same zeal for your Church that you showed for your Father’s house. May I continue to defend and promote the Church by my words and actions.
Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will say a prayer for the Church, and if possible, make a brief visit to you in the tabernacle.
 
REFLECTION
            In the Gospel reading, we find a very unusual Jesus. The Gospel usually describes Jesus as a gentle, loving, compassionate, and forgiving person. All of a sudden we see his violent angry outburst in the Gospel reading today. What triggers this violent outburst of anger?             The Temple authorities and the Jewish traders were making the Court of the Gentiles into noisy market place, where no man could pray. The noise from the sheep and oxen, the cooing of the doves, the shouts of vendors, the jingle of coins from the vendors - all these combined to make the Court of the Gentiles a place where no man could pray and worship. The conduct of the Temple court shut out the Gentiles from seeking the presence of God. It may be this that was upper-most in the mind of Jesus. Jesus was moved to the depth of his heart, because devout men were being shut out from the presence of God. 
            Is there in our Church life today - a snobbishness, superiority complex, an exclusiveness, a coldness, a lack of welcome, a tendency to make the congregation into a closed club, an arrogance, a rigidity - which keeps the searching stranger out? Let us remember the wrath of Jesus against those who made it difficult and even impossible for the searching stranger to make contact with God.
  
9th Nov 2013- John Lateran Church- 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
Ez. 47:1-2,8-9,12 or 1 Cor. 3:9b-11,16-17; Jn. 2:13-22
            Jesus came from a tradition which paid great reverence to holy places. The most holy place of all was where God dwelt; the Temple. Today’s first reading depicts a beautiful picture of lives teeming in the living water running from the Temple. The Psalmist praises God as a protector, strong like a citadel. This city of God is also depicted as a beautiful place, where there is a river whose streams bring joy and whose water sanctifies God's dwelling place. The tradition saw the magnificence of the Temple as symbolizing the holiness of God.
            Jesus’ radical act of cleansing the Temple signified re-focusing the God’s holiness from the outward beauty of the physical temple to relationships, divine and human. God’s holiness is now manifested in the loving relationships between the Father and his children, among whom Jesus Christ is the First-born, and the relationships among the children themselves. In these relationships Jesus leaves no room for unfair trading, injustice, disrespect, exploitation, etc. The Spirit breathes life and restores life in this temple which is Jesus' Body; the Church.
            St. Paul unequivocally instructs us that we are God’s temple, whose foundation is Christ and where the Spirit of God lives. We share in God's work as brothers and sisters in Christ.  Lord, help us to live a life that is holy.
 
REFLECTION
St. John Lateran church, being the oldest basilica in the world and the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, is considered the mother and head of all the churches in the world. We honor this church as a sign of our love and communion with the church. Moreover, this feast is personally our own for the true temple, which Christ referred to in the Gospel, is Himself. The new temple is the Body of Christ, which is us. It was already in the plan of God from the beginning to dwell in us.
            We received the Spirit of the Lord during our baptism. However, we can easily drive away this Spirit whenever we sin. One of the most powerful idols we have is money, which is what incited the anger of Jesus in today's Gospel. Jesus wants to defend us from the traps of being attached to money because this can enslave us. He knows that this attachment often prevents us from loving God.
            We worship God in the temple of our body. We put the foundation of our life on a firm rock, which is Christ. This is the rock from which water flows, as Ezekiel says in the first reading. This water is the Spirit of Christ, water that gives life to us, allowing us to bear fruit. If anyone does not experience this life now but feels dead because of sin, let Christ raise him as he promised in the Gospel.