For this week’s readings and homily please watch the video below.

This week’s post is special in that I am sharing background and details of St. John Lateram Church in Rome.

Churches have stories. They tell us our history. That’ s especially true of the Church of St. John Lateran in Rome, one of first of the great Christian churches built by the Emperor Constantine who came to power early in the 4th century.

He gave Christians freedom to practice their religion throughout the Roman empire. He also built them churches– St. John Lateran was the first of the many he built. At its entrance is an inscription, “The mother of churches”. Rebuilt many times, It’s been there over 1700 years.

Rome’s Christians must have been thrilled when the church, holding 10,000 people, was dedicated around 320 AD. Many were persecuted or had seen relatives, friends or other believers jailed or put to death during the reign of Diocletian, before Constantine.

Now, a new emperor built them a church, a great Christian church, that everyone in Rome could see. He built it on property belonging to his enemies, the Laterani family, which is why it’s called St. John Lateran. It’s situated on the southeastern edge of the city, away from the Roman Forum, because Constantine didn’t want to antagonize followers of Rome’s  traditional religions. Still, the Lateran church was a sign that Christianity had arrived.

Before this, throughout the Roman empire, Christians had no churches but met  in ordinary homes or small buildings. In Rome 25 homes can be identified where they met and worshipped.

That in itself made people wonder about them. Why didn’t Christians participate in public rites and religious sacrifices conducted for the good of the empire, as good Romans did? What kind of religion was this anyway, people said? They’re godless atheists plotting rebellion, the 2nd century pagan writer Celsus said. They were “ people who cut themselves off and isolate themselves from others.” (Origen, Contra Celsum,8,2)

The church of St. John Lateran signaled changing times. After centuries meeting apart in homes and small community settings, Christians now gathered as one great family.

That’s what churches do; they bring people together as one body, one family, one people. That’s how Paul described the church in his Letter to the Romans: “As in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” (Romans12, 4-5)

An important part of the church of Saint John Lateran is its baptistery,  a large building connected to the church itself, worn and patched, as you would expect from a building over 1700 years old. You can still see bricks from Constantine’s time. For centuries Romans have been baptized here. Conveniently, it’s built over a Roman bath supplying water for baptism. The church is called St. John Lateran because St. John the Baptist is one of its patrons, along with St. John the Evangelist. A beautiful Latin inscription over the big baptismal basin and fount says:

Those bound for heaven are born here,

born from holy seed by the Spirit moving on these waters.

Sinners enter this sacred stream and receive new life.

No differences among those born here,

they’re one, sharing one Spirit and one faith.

The Spirit gives children to our Mother, the Church, in these waters.

So be washed from your own sins and those of your ancestors.

Christ’s wounds are a life-giving fountain washing the whole world.

The kingdom of heaven is coming, eternal life is coming.

Don’t be afraid to come and be born a Christian.

One last thing about St. John Lateran, which many people don’t know. It’s the pope’s church. From the time of Constantine till the 15th century, the popes, leaders of the Church of Rome, resided next to this church. Then, they moved to the Vatican, where they live today.

Celebrating the dedication of a church, as we are doing today, reminds us  how important church buildings are for our faith. God speaks in our churches, God comes to us in our churches.

“Do you not know that you are the temple of God,

and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” St. Paul says.

“If anyone destroys God’s temple,

God will destroy that person;

for the temple of God, which you are.

The Lateran Basilica was the central worship place for the Roman church and home of the popes until the 15th century. The Eucharist and other sacraments were celebrated here. Important church councils were held here. Christian pilgrims came to venerate Christian relics honored here. The site is important in Christian history.

By the 15th century, Rome’s fortunes had faded and the southeastern parts of the city became isolated and depopulated, an easy prey for invading armies. Fires and earthquakes left the Lateran church and its surroundings in ruins many times. The popes decided to move their residence and church offices to the safer areas of Vatican Hill and St. Peter’s, across the city. Still, the Lateran Basilica remains Rome’s principal church.

Tides of change wash over the church, as we see so well here at the Lateran. The Lateran Basilica offers an image of change. We’re losing our churches now in some parts of the world, as people turn away from them. What shall we make of it?

In Luke’s gospel read today, Jesus calls Zachaeus, the publican, the outsider, to come down from the tree where he watches from a distance. “I want to stay in your house today,” Jesus tells him, and he brings salvation to his house. “My house shall be called a house of prayer for many nations,” we read from the Prophet Isaiah.

We need to cherish our churches, signs of the God’s presence. They’re places we meet God.

A video on the Church of St. John Lateran is here.

Brothers and sisters:
Greet Prisca and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus,
who risked their necks for my life,
to whom not only I am grateful but also all the churches of the Gentiles;
greet also the Church at their house.
Greet my beloved Epaenetus,
who was the firstfruits in Asia for Christ.
Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you.
Greet Andronicus and Junia,
my relatives and my fellow prisoners;
they are prominent among the Apostles
and they were in Christ before me.
Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord.
Greet Urbanus, our co-worker in Christ,
and my beloved Stachys.
Greet one another with a holy kiss.
All the churches of Christ greet you.

I, Tertius, the writer of this letter, greet you in the Lord.
Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole Church, greets you.
Erastus, the city treasurer,
and our brother Quartus greet you.

Now to him who can strengthen you, 
according to my Gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ,
according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages
but now manifested through the prophetic writings and,
according to the command of the eternal God,
made known to all nations to bring about the obedience of faith,
to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ
be glory forever and ever. Amen.

We’re ending Paul’s Letter to the Romans this Saturday, his longest and most theological letter. In chapter 15 he speaks about his mission to Spain, (Friday) assuring the Romans he’s coming to Rome as a visitor, not to be part of their church. 

He knows a surprising number of people in the Roman church, but Paul’s not planning to settle down there with them. He obviously hopes the Roman church will support him on his Spanish mission; his aim is to bring the gospel to the whole world. 

First, he will return to Jerusalem, the city of his own people, the Jews. It’s not just to deliver some funds for their relief. He wants to assure them, to persuade them that the message he preaches is the gospel of God. 

Paul never gets to Spain; he’ll die in Rome.

I find it strange that Paul in his letters doesn’t offer extensive references to incidents in Jesus’ life, such as his miracles, or quotations from his teaching or his parables. We do that as a matter of course in talking or teaching about faith today. 

True, the gospels were not written when Paul wrote to the Romans, likely in 56 to 58 from Corinth, but certainly the stories of Jesus’ life and summaries of his teaching were important in Christian preaching at the time. Why doesn’t Paul use them?

Does he see the mystery of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus an immediate mystery, taking place now? The gospels bring us back to the time of Jesus, the events of his life and the words of his teaching. Does Paul see them, not just as events and words of the past, but a mystery happening now. Jesus is not dead, but living in the world here and now. 

Paul introduces us to someone, not from the past, but someone sharing himself and his promise with us now. Is that why Paul’s letters are read with the gospels? So that we may understand the gospels are happening now, in our time, in us? Maybe so.