Vigils Reading – Lateran Basilica

The largest and most famous of Rome’s great basilicas is St. Peter’s, which is constructed over the bones of the apostle to whom Jesus gave the Keys of the Kingdom. But St. Peter’s is not the oldest and is not the primary basilica in Rome; that honor is accorded to the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the pope’s own

church… Dating back to the fourth century, St. John Lateran carries the title of “ecumenical mother church,” the mother church of the whole inhabited world… to which all… Churches are united.

After the first centuries of persecution by state power, the Church gained the freedom to organize her life in the fourth century. From that time onward for a millennium, the Bishop of Rome had his residence at the “Lateran Palace” and his cathedral church was part of that complex. We know it as St. John Lateran, but it was originally dedicated in 324 and dedicated to Christ the Savior. Centuries later two additional patrons were added, St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist…

After the Avignon exile in the 14th century, when the pope returned to Rome he did not live at the Lateran, which had been damaged by two fires in the interim. He eventually settled at the Vatican, where the pope has lived ever since. However,

despite the grandeur of the new St. Peter’s, built in the 16th century, the pope never shifted his cathedral, which remains his cathedral church…

It’s rare that a liturgical feast turns our eyes to a building… But that’s missing the point: We are challenged to look within the four marbled walls to see what’s really important: the “chair of Peter.”

In Exodus 18:13, Moses sat upon his chair, and the Israelites understood that from that honored throne, he ruled in judgment of his people. In the Scriptures, the authority of the chair was passed on to Joshua. Jesus recognized the

authority of the chair, and so conferred upon Peter both his own authority, and the authority of Moses.

In St. John Lateran, the locus of the Catholic Faith, the Church proclaims itself to be truly one (that is, united in faith), holy, catholic… and apostolic (continuing unceasing from the time of the apostles)…

As we celebrate the…feast of the great basilica, we are reminded that like the great basilica, we are temples of God. We are holy, for we are made in the image and likeness of God. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul cautions “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.