Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today would have been the thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time. Since today is November ninth, the day designated to honor the Lateran Basilica, we take a break from our journey with Jesus and the disciples through the Gospel of Luke. Next Sunday, we will resume our journey to Jerusalem with Jesus and the disciples. You may scroll all the way down for more information about the Lateran basilica.   

The festival of the dedication of the Lateran Basilica calls us to honor and respect the integrity of the temple, the house of God. This call to reverence the dwelling place of God permeate the Scripture readings of the mass today. The first reading of today’s mass is from Ezekiel, Chapter 47:1-2, 8-9, 12. Ezekiel had a vision of the temple of Jerusalem as the dwelling place of God. He saw a river of fresh water flowing from beneath the threshold of the temple which transformed the salty sea into fresh water. The salty sea thus became a home to all sorts of marine life and all kinds of living things grew along the banks of the river.

This transformation from seeming death into abundant life testified to the life-giving power and presence of God in the temple. We are invited to reflect on whether similar life-giving power flows from our Churches into the world around us today.

In the second reading of todays’ mass, we read about Paul reminding the Corinthian community (1 Corinthians 3:9-11) that they have become God’s temple, “building.” The temple of God is the community of believers, the Church.  Paul affirms that the Spirit of God dwells within the Christian Community. The Spirit of God is not found in a building…the Spirit is to be found in the living assembly of God’ people.

Pau cautioned them again and again that comparisons, competitions and divisions destroy this temple and that the Church’s greatest weakness was its divisions. In this excerpt, he describes the root cause of this division in the Church as the worship of worldly wisdom with which the Corinthians assessed the worth of different teachers and preachers. It was this intellectual pride that caused the breakdown. So Paul says that the wisest thing for a man would be to become humble enough so that he may learn…. “If any one among you considers himself wise in this age, let him become a fool so as to become wise.” (1 Corinthians 3:18)
 

To read more of this Sunday’s reflection, please click on the link below...