Dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica

Seldom do we have this Feast fall on Sunday. Rarer still do we celebrate it even it does fall on Sunday. This is the first time after my own baptism that we celebrate this Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica.
St. John Lateran Basilica is one of the 4 major cathedrals in Rome. It is the oldest cathedral of all. The palace belonged to the family of Laterani. Emperor Constantine donated it to the church. It used to be the residence of the Pope and the Cathedral of Rome until the days of the antipopes. When the Popes returned from Avignon, they chose Vatican to be their residence until today.
The Lateran Basilica has since become the Mother Cathedral of all cathedrals. She becomes the centre of communion among the universal Church, like the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, the Vicar of Jesus who is the centre of communion among the universal Church. Its symbolic significance is unparallel.
From the Bible, we know that God does not need a temple nor a church to dwell in. The last chapter of Isaiah has this saying from God. Stephen, the first Christian martyr quoted this before he died.
Thus says the LORD: "Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool;
what is the house which you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?
All these things my hand has made, and so all these things are mine, says the LORD (Isaiah 66:1-2a, Acts 7:49-50a).
In fact, since the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 AD, Judaism has evolved into a Torah-keeping faith rather than a cultic sacrificial religion.
In the gospel of John, Jesus cleansed the Temple early in his ministry rather than near its end. From the very beginning, he antagonized the Jewish authority and this explains why he incurred so much opposition from them. He loved the House of God so much so that he could not tolerate their blaspheming it. When challenged, he made a daring response.
The Jews then said to him, "What sign have you to show us for doing this?"
Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
The Jews then said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?"
But he spoke of the temple of his body.
When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken (John 2:18-22).
Jesus' body was the Temple. Naturally, Christians extend this idea to themselves. Our body is also a temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells. This was developed by St. Paul.
Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
If any one destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and that temple you are (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).
St. Peter has a similar teaching, but on a communal level. We are living stones that build up the holy church. Here, St. Peter was extending the Sinai covenant, in which the Israelites vowed to become a kingdom of priests, a holy nation (Exodus 19:6).
Come to him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God's sight chosen and precious;
and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:4-5).
Therefore, both Judaism and Christianity do not stress the need of a magnificent temple. However, its symbolic and communal significance cannot be ignored. Our parish priest, Fr. John Baptist Kwan is anxious in making the crucifix conspicuous. In his previous parish in Hunghom, there is a big outdoor crucifix visible within the region. Fr. Kwan claimed that this crucifix has inspired a desperate man to give up the intention to commit suicide. He said that the church is symbolically important. But the parishioners are more important. An attractive church cannot be functional if the parishioners repel outsiders.

My dear Advocate, I confess my sins. I want to clean up my soul so that it may become a decent enough place for You to dwell. Amen.