Who is St. John Lateran and how does the dedication of this Church upstage the
Sunday celebration? The solemnity we celebrate today celebrates a particular church,
the entire church throughout the world and all of us as part of the Church.
Around 311, shortly after Emperor Constantine granted legal rights to Christians, he
gave a palace that originally belonged to the Laterani family. The great hall of the palace
was enlarged and dedicated by Pope St. Sylvester as a basilica in 324. It is the oldest of
the four basilicas of Rome, St. Peter’s, St. Paul’s and St. Mary Major. The Basilica was
originally named for Our Savior.
Coming as a close of years of persecutions, we can imagine how momentous this
dedication was for the Christians. An octagonal (eight sided) baptistery, was dedicated
to St. John the Baptist. For a long period of time, this was the only baptistery in Rome.
The association with baptism is the reason for the reading from Ezekiel, with the healing
waters flowing from the temple. An adjourning Benedictine monastery was also named
for St. John. Eventually, the name of the baptistery and the monastery were commonly
applied to the basilica.
The basilica suffered major earthquakes in 443 and 896. It was burned in 1308 and
1360 and sacked by Vandals in the fifth century and by the Saracens in the eight
century. Its survival is a reminder that the Church itself, through history, has risen from
virtual destruction.
Inscribed over the main doors are the word, “Omnium Ecclesiarum Urbis et Orbis, Mater
et Caput” (“Mother and Head of all Churches of the City and of the World.”) This Church
is the Pope’s seat as Bishop of Rome. The popes have resided there from the fourth
century until 1309. Five Councils have taken place there.
As the Pope’s Church as the Bishop of Rome, this Church is a visible symbol of the
unity of the Church. Lumen Gentium, the Document on the Church of the Second
Vatican Council, declares” “In order that the episcopate itself might be one and
undivided He set Peter as the head of the other apostles, and in him He set up a lasting
and visible source and foundation of unity both of faith and communion” “Constitution of
the Church,” 18).
The Church is also the Body of Christ in its members. St. Paul tells the people of
Corinth: ”Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God
dwells in you” (1 Cor 3:16).

St. Thomas Aquinas reminds us of Paul’s words to the Ephesians: “You must recognize
your dignity, which he indicates when he says: Do you not know that you, Christ’s

faithful, are the temple of God? “In whom the whole structure is joined together and
grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling
place of God in the Spirit” (Eph 2:21) (Commentary on First Corinthians, 171).
Thomas compares a holy place and a person of faith: “For it is the mark of a temple to
be God’s dwelling place: ‘The Lord is in is holy temple’ (Ps 11:4); hence everything in
which God dwells can be called a temple. Now God dwells chiefly in Himself, because
He alone comprehends Himself; hence God Himself is called a temple: ‘Its temple is the
Lord God’ (Rev 21:22). God also dwells in a building consecrated by the special worship
offered Him in it; therefore, a holy building is called a temple: ‘I will worship at the holy
temple in your fear’ (Ps 5:8). Furthermore, he dwells in men by faith, which works
through love: ‘That Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts’ (Eph 3:17). Hence to prove
that the faithful are God’s temple, he adds that they are dwelt in by God when he says:
and the Spirit of God dwells in you, as in Rom (8:11) when he said: ‘The Spirit who
raised Jesus Christ dwells in you’; ‘I will put my spirit within you’ (Ez 36:27). This shows
that the Spirit is God, by Whose indwelling the faithful are called God’s temple, for only
God’s indwelling makes a thing God’s dwelling (Commentary on First Corinthians, 172).
God dwells in those who have faith, hope and charity: “God is said to dwell spiritually as
in a family in the saints, whose mind is capable of God by knowledge and love, even
though they may not be actually thinking of Him or loving Him, provided that by grace
they possess the habit of faith and charity , as in the case of baptized infants. However,
knowledge without love does not suffice for God’s indwelling” ‘he who abides in love
abides in God and God in him’ (1 John 4:16) (Commentary on First Corinthians, 173).
The temple of God is holy: :For the temple of God is holy, and that temple you are, as
he stated earlier and as stated in Ps 65 (v. 4) ‘Holy is your temple, wonderful in justice,’
and again in Ps 93 (v. 5): ‘Holiness befits thy house, O Lord.’ In a material temple,
however, is a certain sacramental holiness, inasmuch as the temple is dedicated to
divine worship; but in Christ’s faithful is the holiness of grace, which they acquired by
baptism: “’You have been washed, you have been sanctified’ 1 Cor (6:11) (Commentary
on First Corinthians, 175).
Denis Vincent Wiseman, O.P.

References are to Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the First Letter to The Corinthians,
Vol. 38, The Works of St. Thomas Aquinas, translated by F.R. Larcher, O.P., edited by J.
Mortensen and E. Alarcón, (Lander Wyoming: Aquinas Institute, 2012).