Mass Readings for : Saturday, 9th November, 2024

Liturgical Readings for : Saturday, 9th November, 2024

09-11 Dedication of St John Lateran Basilica

The Church of St John on the Lateran in Rome is the Cathedral Church of the bishop of Rome
It is dedicated to the Most Holy Saviour and called after the two Ss Johns, the Divine and the Baptist

FIRST READING

A reading from the book of the Prophet Ezekiel 47:1-2. 8-9. 12
I saw a stream of water coming from the Temple brining life where it flowed.

The angel brought me back to the entrance of the Temple, where a stream came out from under the Temple threshold and flowed eastwards, since the Temple faced east.
The water flowed from under the right side of the Temple, south of the altar. He took me out by the north gate and led me right round outside as far as the outer east gate where the water flowed out on the right-hand side.

He said,
‘This water flows east down to the Arabah and to the sea; and flowing into the sea it makes its waters wholesome. Wherever the river flows, all living creatures teeming in it will live. Fish will be very plentiful, for wherever the water goes it brings health, and life teems wherever the river flows.
Along the river, on either bank, will grow every kind of fruit tree with leaves that never wither and fruit that never fails; they will bear new fruit every month, because this water comes from the sanctuary. And their fruit will be good to eat and the leaves medicinal.

The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 45:2-3.5-6.8-9.
Response The waters of a river give joy to God’s city,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.

1. God is for us a refuge and strength, a helper close at-hand, in time. of distress:
so we shall not fear though the earth should rock,
though the mountain§ fall into the depths of the sea. Response

2. The waters of a river give joy to God’s city,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within, it cannot be shaken; God will help it at the dawning of the day. Response

3. The Lord of hosts is with us: the God of Jacob is our stronghold.
Come, consider the works of the Lord, the redoubtable deeds he has done on the earth.
Response

SECOND READING

A reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians 3:9-11. 16-17
You are God’s temple.

You are God’s building. By the grace God gave me, I succeeded as an architect and laid the foundations, on which someone else is doing the building.
Everyone doing the building must work carefully. For the foundation, nobody can lay any other than the one which has already been laid, that is Jesus Christ.

Didn’t you realise that you were God’s temple and that the Spirit of God was living among you?
If anybody should destroy the temple of God, God will destroy him,
because the temple of God is sacred; and you are that temple.

The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God.

Gospel Acclamation. 2 Chron 7:16
Alleluia, Alleluia!
I have chosen and consecrated this house, says the Lord,
for my name to be there for ever;
Alleluia!

GOSPEL

The Lord be with you. And with your spirit
A reading from the Gospel according to John 2:13-22 Glory to you, O Lord.
He was speaking of the sanctuary that was his body.

Just before the Jewish Passover Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and 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’.

Then his disciples remembered the words of scripture:
Zeal for your house will devour me.
The Jews intervened and said,
‘What sign can you show us to justify what you have done?’
Jesus answered,
‘Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up’.
The Jews replied,
‘It has taken forty-six years to build this sanctuary: are you going to raise it up in three days?’
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.

The Gospel of the Lord Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

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Gospel Reflection Saturday The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica John 2:13–22

The Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome is the Cathedral church of the Pope in his role as Bishop of the Diocese of Rome. It is called ‘Saint John’ after the two monasteries once attached, dedicated to Saint John the apostle and Saint John the Baptist. As the Cathedral Church of the Pope it has the title ‘Mother and Head of all the churches of the City and of the World’. It is sometimes called the Lateran Basilica or the Basilica of Saint John Lateran. The ‘Laterani’ were an old Roman family who probably once owned the land on which the Emperor Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, built this Basilica in the early decades of the fourth century. The present Basilica retains the plan given to it by Constantine but it has been rebuilt and restored over the centuries.

It is one of the most important religious buildings in the Catholic Church. The most important religious building in the time of Jesus and the early church was the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. In the words of today’s responsorial psalm, it was ‘the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within, it cannot be shaken’. At a time when this Temple was still standing in all its glory, Paul, writing to the church in Corinth, makes the extraordinary statement in today’s second reading, ‘Don’t you realize that you are God’s Temple and that the Spirit of God is living among you?’ Paul is declaring that the Most High now dwells in the community of believers who gather around the risen Lord.

The focal point of God’s presence is no longer a building, no matter how magnificent, but the community of those who have responded in faith to the preaching of the gospel of Christ crucified and risen. Paul declares that the foundation of this building is the one he has laid, namely, Jesus Christ. If someone came along and tried to replace that foundation with another, the church would no longer be the focal point of God’s presence in the world. In today’s gospel reading from John, which was written perhaps thirty years after the Jewish Temple was destroyed by the Romans, Jesus speaks of himself as the temple of God, the focal point of God’s presence. The Word who was God became flesh in Jesus; to see Jesus is to see God the Father. The risen Lord is the primary temple of God and the church can only be God’s temple if the risen Lord remains its foundation. As individual believers, we can only mediate God’s presence to our world to the extent that we allow his Son, our risen Lord, to live out his life in and through us.