Brief synopsis of the readings: Once again this week our readings are changed. Today we commemorate the dedication the Lateran Basilica in Rome. Our first reading comes from the prophet Ezekiel. This takes place during the exile in Babylon, after the destruction of the first Temple and before the construction of the second Temple. Here Ezekiel receives a vision from an angel who shows him a temple with water flowing from the temple to the east, providing water to the crops and sustenance to the people. John’s Gospel shows Jesus at the Temple shortly before Passover. Just outside the Temple he saw the money changers and those who had animals to sell for sacrifice. Enraged at this Jesus drove them away and tipped over their tables. Foreshadowing his own death and resurrection he told them that when the Temple is destroyed he will raise it in three days.

There are a few times during the year when we need to explain the commemoration and today is one of them. When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 313 a church was built in Rome on land owned by the wealthy Lateran family. It was destroyed and rebuilt several times but we commemorate its last rebuild in 1724.

We also need to unpack some of the details of the Gospel. The Temple was the center of worship during the time of Jesus and it had certain rules. It was customary to make an offering at the Temple, normally an animal of some sort and the choice depended on your wealth. It was an ox for rich people and a dove for the poor. But rather than haul an animal all the way to Jerusalem for the sacrifice it was easier to purchase one there, and there were dealers for that. Also, all Roman coins bore the image of Caesar but you couldn’t bring in something with an image to the Temple. Money changers were simply merchants who exchanged Roman coins for “Temple coins” that didn’t have an image. These merchants allowed ordinary Jews to follow the law and nobody thought much about it. What enraged Jesus wasn’t what they were doing so much as the fact that Temple worship had become so commercialized. In Jesus’ eyes this wasn’t like a hokey gift shop in the back of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He felt this took away from the sanctity of the Temple and turned it into a place for merchants to make money.

And at first glance, given that today we commemorate a church in Rome, our first reading prophesies a grand Temple, and our Gospel demands respect for the Temple, we can see this as an “ode to buildings.” Except that doesn’t make any sense. When the Jews left slavery in Egypt and came to the promised land, King Solomon oversaw the construction of the first Temple. It wasn’t just a place of worship, it was the place of worship, the center of their lives. Everything flowed into it. When it was destroyed by the Babylonians they felt their entire identity had been destroyed.

After their exile ended the Temple was rebuilt and that’s the Temple Jesus visited, but that would be destroyed by the Romans 35 years later and it’s never been rebuilt. And the current Basilica of St. John Lateran has only been around for 300 years. Let’s face it: buildings are not forever. Whether through conflict, natural disasters or just plain gravity, they all have an expiration date.

But if buildings have a finite life, what does last forever? Clearly God is forever. And just as clearly, each of us are not. But together, as a people, we are forever. Last week I spoke about how we all stand on the shoulders of others and we provide the shoulders for others to stand on. We can become, if we choose, the eternal Temple and in that sense we will last forever.

The temple shown to Ezekiel in our first reading existed only in the vision given to him but one aspect of it caught my eye. Water flowed from the temple to Arabah (the desert). Instead of the temple being the focal point, it was the origin point, the place where lifegiving water flowed from the temple to where it was needed. If we are living the life Christ wants for us, aren’t we doing the same thing? Our bodies should not be the focal point of worship but the origin of life for all around us (and on our shoulders).

And of the Temple in the Gospel? As I said, at the time of Jesus the clock was ticking before the Romans destroyed it, and it had nothing to do with the things that angered Jesus. As I said, Jesus responded as he did because of “shortcuts” that were taken. The idea of sacrificing an animal was clear. All we have comes from God and a sacrifice recognizes that by giving something we have back to God. But if all we do is “write a check” does that really remind us of what God has given us or does it just become a mechanical fulfillment of a duty? Does it make us lazy?

Perhaps this reminds us that we should pay more attention to those things around us. In 1854 the transcendentalist philosopher Henry David Thoreau said: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately.” He left behind many of the conveniences that made life easier for him because they were distracting him from the things life could teach him. It was only by slowing things down and paying more attention that he could be what he wanted to be.

If we are collectively the eternal Temple, perhaps we should look at both of these examples. Life flows from us and we live fully in the awareness of our role. This sounds easy and the cheesy self help book from this can practically write itself. But we live in a world that often calls us in a different direction.

Temples have become fortresses and we have traded streams for moats. We are told to live in fear of losing what we have to “them,” however we define them. Water flowing from us does not quench the desert, it means we won’t have what we need.

We are also bombarded with “needs” that will make our life easier. But do they? For all the time saving gadgets we have, I find that the spare time they promise never really shows up. We miss a beautiful sunset because we’re counting likes on our phone’s social media account. I don’t want to sound overly critical, but how many “must haves” push out “wait fors?”

If we, all of us, are the Temple, try to notice something new everyday that may have been just a little hidden. What a beautiful Temple that would be.