Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome

 Lectionary: 671

"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.

Christianity -- especially in its original Catholic form -- is very materialistic. Our spirituality is a materialistic way of life as we honor the Lord's flesh and blood, and his birth by the Virgin Mary. Even when we practice our more spiritual ways of knowing the Lord, like "centering prayer," we still our bodies, listen to our breathing, and wait for the thumping heart to slow to a steady, relaxed pace. In the process of becoming this body, I come closer to the One born of Mary. 

Catholicism likes to celebrate material structures like basilicas and cathedrals, from ginormous Saint John Lateran to the tiny Portiuncula. They appear in our calendars and remind us of the pilgrimages we should make to nearby and distant shrines. We also mark the presence among us of smaller relics like the wood of the cross (September 14) and the Chair of Saint Peter (February 22.) But there are many other seriously venerated relics like the Shroud of Turin and Veronica's Veil, not to mention the thousands of skulls, bones, and incorrupt bodies of saints that are honored. These tiny curios assure us there really was a Saint Francis or Saint Dominic.  

As our individual lives emerge from our mother's wombs, and our mothers die, and then we die, we honor these persistent material things that at least demonstrate, if not prove, the credibility of our faith in Jesus. They remain while our individual bodies are buried or cremated. He really lived, suffered, died, and was raised up in our world, in a place we can visit, and at a moment we can identify in our histories. 

If he didn't appear in North American history until many centuries after his death, he has certainly become a powerful presence there since then. When he commanded us to "be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth,” he charged us to introduce his story into every history. 

Because he charged us to announce the gospel to every creature, we understand God's command to, 

...have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the tame animals, all the wild animals, and all the creatures that crawl on the earth. (Genesis 1:26)

We must protect and foster the life of every species. No creature should be lost under a crush of mindless human progress. Rather, their presence should direct our progress toward greater respect, admiration, and wonder for all God's creatures. 

Like the Lord, Christians love this world. And with him, we give our lives for its benefit. Our presence, like those of our bones of Saint Francis and the basilicas in Rome, persists to bless this world, its people, and all its creatures, animate and inanimate.