Major Basilica

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Monday, 18 November 2013 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Peter and the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Dedication of Basilica)

Psalm 118 : 53, 61, 134, 150, 155, 158

I feel indignant at the wicked who have forsaken Your law.

The wicked have me trapped in their snares, but I have not forgotten Your laws.

Rescue me from human oppression, and help me keep Your precepts.

My persecutors close in with evil intent; they are far from Your Law.

Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek Your statutes.

I look upon the faithless with loathing, because they do not obey Your ruling.

Alternate Reading (Mass for Dedication of the Basilicas)

 

Psalm 97 : 1, 2-3ab, 3c-4, 5-6

Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wonders; His right hand, His holy arm, has won victory for Him.

The Lord has shown His salvation, revealing His justice to the nations. He has not forgotten His love nor His faithfulness to Israel.

The farthest ends of the earth all have seen God’s saving power. All you lands, make a joyful noise to the Lord, break into song and sing praise.

With melody of the lyre and with music of the harp. With trumpet blast and sound of the horn, rejoice before the King, the Lord!

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Monday, 18 November 2013 : 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, Memorial of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Peter and the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Green or White (Dedication of Basilica)

1 Maccabees 1 : 10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-64

From the kings who followed Alexander (the Great), from their descendants there came a godless offshoot, Antiochus Epiphanes, son of King Antiochus, who had been held as hostage in Rome. He became king in the one hundred and thirty-seventh year of the Greek era (175 B.C.).

It was then that some rebels emerged from Israel, who succeeded in winning over many people. They said, “Let us renew contact with the peoples around us for we had endured many misfortunes since we separated from them.”

This proposal was well-received and some eagerly went to the king. The king authorised them to adopt the customs of the pagan nations. With his permission, they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem in the pagan style. And as they wanted to be like the pagans in everything, they made artificial foreskins for themselves and abandoned the Holy Covenant, sinning as they pleased.

Antiochus issued a decree to his whole kingdom. All the peoples of his empire had to renounce their particular customs and become one people. All the pagan nations obeyed and respected the king’s decree, and even in Israel many accepted the imposed cult. They offered sacrifices to idols and no longer respected the Sabbath.

On the fifteenth day of the month of Chislev, in the year one hundred and forty-five, Antiochus erected the “abominable idol of the invaders” on the altar of the Temple. Pagan altars were built throughout the whole land of Judea; incense was offered at the doors of their houses and in the squares. There wicked men tore up the books of the Law they found and burned them. They killed anyone they caught in possession of the book of the Covenant and who fulfilled the precepts of the Law, as the royal decree had ordered.

But in spite of all this, many Israelites still remained firm and determined not to eat unclean food. They preferred to die rather than to make themselves unclean with those foods prohibited by the Law, that violated the Holy Covenant. And Israel suffered a very great trial.

Alternate Reading (Mass for Dedication of the Basilicas)

 

Acts 28 : 11-16, 30-31

After three months, we boarded a ship that had spent the winter at the island. It belonged to an Alexandrian company and carried the figurehead of Castor and Pollux as insignia. We sailed for Syracuse, staying there for three days and, after circling the coast, we arrived at Rhegium.

On the following day, a south wind began to blow, and at the end of two days we arrived at Puteoli, where we found some of our brothers who invited us to stay with them for a week. And that was how we came to Rome.

There the brothers and sisters had been informed of our arrival and came out to meet us as far as the Appian Forum and the Three Taverns. When Paul saw them, he gave thanks to God and took courage.

Upon our arrival in Rome, the captain turned the prisoners over to the military governor, but permitted Paul to lodge in a private house with the soldier who guarded him.

Paul stayed for two whole years in a house he himself rented, where he received without any hindrance all those who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught the truth about Jesus Christ, the Lord, quite openly and without any hindrance.

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Saturday, 9 November 2013 : Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica (Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Today, all of us in the Holy Mother Church, that is all the people of God in communion with each other, and therefore united as one Church of God, celebrate the feast of the dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, or the Cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, the place where the very Vicar of Christ, the Pope, has his seat of authority. It is the mother church of all Christendom, the primary church of the entire Universal Church.

We celebrate today the dedication of that Basilica, the great place of worship of our God, which had stood since the day when the faith in God finally triumphed over all its oppressors, under the rule of the first Christian Emperor Constantine. This Basilica was once an Imperial palace complex for the Roman Emperors in Rome, and it was donated to the Church by the Emperor Constantine, over seventeen centuries ago, with massive state funding to help establish proper places of worship.

The Bishop of Rome, that is the successor of St. Peter as the Vicar of Christ on earth, the leader of the entire Universal Church, received that generous donation from the pious Emperor, and he made what will become the Basilica of St. John Lateran, as the Cathedral and seat of the Pope, the centre and heart of the Universal Church. That Basilica is dedicated to St. John the Evangelist and to the Lord Saviour of all mankind. Truly a place of marvel, fitting to be the heart of all Christendom. Today we celebrate the dedication of that wonder of God.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today’s readings have been designed to fit with the occasion, and therefore, they deal with the matter of the holy Temple of God. In the first reading, we are told of the heavenly Temple, the Temple of God in the glory of heaven, out of which gushes forth living water that satisfies and saves. It is the life-giving water that came from the Lord Himself

But the Temple of God is not just a physical temple or the heavenly temple. It is also in fact, all of us the faithful ones of God. For, ever since we were baptised and sealed in the Holy Name of the Most Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God has dwelled within us, through the Holy Spirit that comes and dwells within all of us, who had been marked as the children of God.

That is why, all of us, our hearts and bodies are the Temple of God and the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Hence, it is why the Lord continues to encourage us to do good deeds and avoid things evil and unworthy of God, basically things that can corrupt the holiness of our Temples, that is our hearts and bodies. We must always be vigilant, as we cannot be complacent or evil may corrupt the Temple that is our body and heart.

Just as we keep the Temple of God, that is our churches, cathedrals, and also the Basilica of St. John Lateran, which dedication we remember today, holy and good at all times, then we too must and should keep the Temple that is our hearts and bodies pure at all times. If we wreath ourselves in love, in God’s love, then we can readily maintain the purity of our Temples.

Our mouth is the gate to this Temple, and our hands, limbs and others are the courtyard. If we are to ensure the purity of the Temple of God in us, we have to make sure that these places are clean as well. We cannot let the devil and his agents to corrupt these that the Temple that is our body, heart and soul be corrupted with sin.

That is why, brothers and sisters in Christ, we have to watch our words, our deeds and actions, that we do not end up committing sin through them. That we will not make dirty and unworthy the Temple, where the Lord resides in us. Jesus was right to be angry, when He saw the House of God, that is the Temple of Jerusalem, made into a house of sin, by the corrupt practices of the merchants and sellers of the animal sacrifices and money changers, all of whom cheated their customers all those who came to genuinely worship the Lord.

The Lord’s wrath is great against all those people, and He will not let them go so easily. The Lord will show them His justice. Therefore, we too, brethren, should strive to always be upright in our dealings, in our words and actions. How to do so? By having a strong and healthy spiritual life and having closer and intimate relationship with the Lord our God!

We have to pray, pray faithfully, pray with zeal, and pray with true devotion and dedication to God, whenever we pray. Through prayer, the Lord will grant us His love and blessing, opening the floodgates of His blessing upon us. We will be strong, and purified by the waters that flow from the Temple of God in heaven, the life-giving water, and the water that purifies. That water is also Jesus, the One who had given up His life for us, that from Him, and to all who believes in Him, a new life may be given to them, a life eternal in God.

Hence, as we rejoice today in the dedication of this great Basilica of St. John Lateran, the centre and heart of Christendom, let us also take the time to reflect and make the effort to keep clean and pure, the Temple of God, the Temple of the Holy Spirit, that is our hearts and our bodies, that we can always worship the Lord worthily and with the fullness of God’s blessings. God bless us all. Amen.

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Saturday, 9 November 2013 : Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 2 : 13-22

As the Passover of the Jews was at hand, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the Temple court He found merchants selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and money-changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the Temple court, together with the oxen and sheep.

He knocked over the tables of the money-changers, scattering the coins, and ordered the people selling doves, “Take all this away, and stop turning My Father’s house into a marketplace!”

His disciples recalled the words of Scripture : “Zeal for Your House devours me like fire.”

The Jews then questioned Jesus, “Where are the miraculous signs which give you the right to do this?” And Jesus said, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”

The Jews then replied, “The building of this temple has already taken forty-six years, and will You raise it up in three days?” Actually Jesus was referring to the Temple of His Body. Only when He had risen from the dead did His disciples remember these words; then they believed both the Scripture and the words Jesus had spoken.

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Saturday, 9 November 2013 : Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica (Second Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 Corinthians 3 : 9b-11, 16-17

You are God’s field and building. I, as a good architect, according to the capacity given to me, I laid the foundation, and another is to build upon it. Each one must be careful how to build upon it. No one can lay a foundation other than the one which is already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Do you not know that you are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit abides within you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. God’s temple is holy, and you are this temple.

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Saturday, 9 November 2013 : Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 45 : 2-3, 5-6, 8-9

God is our strength and protection, an ever-present help in affliction. We will not fear, therefore, though the earth be shaken, and the mountains plunge into the seas.

There is a river whose streams bring joy to the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within, the city cannot quake, for God’s help is upon it at the break of day.

For with us is the Lord of hosts, the God of Jacob, our refuge. Come, see the works of the Lord – the marvelous things He has done in the world.

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Saturday, 9 November 2013 : Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

Ezekiel 47 : 1-2, 8-9, 12

The Man brought me back to the entrance of the Temple and I saw water coming out from the threshold of the Temple and flowing eastwards. The Temple faced the east and the water flowed from the south side of the Temple, from the south side of the Altar. He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing the east and there I saw the stream coming from the south side.

He said to me, “This water goes to the east, down to the Arabah, and when it flows into the sea of foul smelling water, the water will become wholesome. Wherever the river flows, swarms of creatures will live in it; fish will be plentiful and the sea water will become fresh. Wherever it flows, life will abound.

Near the river on both banks there will be all kinds of fruit trees with foliage that will not wither and fruit that will never fail; each month they will bear a fresh crop because the water comes from the Temple. The fruit will be good to eat and the leaves will be used for healing.