Today the Church remembers the dedication of the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral Church of the bishop of Rome, the mother church for Catholics. (St. Peter’s is in Vatican City which is, technically, a separate country!) We at St. James have an ambiguous relationship with sacred places. We lost our church building ten years ago but continue to thrive as a parish even without one. A look at the scripture readings assigned for the dedication of this particular church show a similar ambiguity toward buildings. The vision of the temple by the prophet Ezekiel took place after the temple was destroyed. He envisions the ideal temple as the place that give life. St. Paul reminds us that WE are the temple. Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? Jesus in the Gospel of John shifts the focus off of the temple building and onto the temple which is his body. All of which says, sacred places are important for we are bodies who are situated in space. However, the really sacred place is where “two or three are gathered” in the name of Jesus, wherever that may be.
