The Holy Temple:
Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time 2025
November 9, 2025
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Ezekiel 47:1-12; Psalm 46; 1 Corinthians 3:9-17; John 2:13-22
I bet you are wondering why we are celebrating the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome on a Sunday when most other feasts do not take precedence over the Lord’s Day, and why this date was chosen. Most people scratch their heads. Well, every diocese celebrates the dedication anniversary of its cathedral each year with a feast, and since the Lateran is the Cathedral of Rome, it becomes the feast day for the entire Church. It is right in the center of old Rome, and it is the cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. It is the oldest and highest-ranking church in the Catholic Church, and it was dedicated on November 9th, 324 CE under Emperor Constantine, who made the faith the Imperial state religion of the Empire.
An inscription at the entrance of the basilica reads: “Mother and Head of All the Churches in the City and the World.” The unity of the entire Catholic Church with the bishop of Rome is expressed in the cathedral church of Rome. “The Lateran” takes its name from the family historically associated with land, the Laterani family, a high-ranking family in service to several Roman emperors. The Emperor Constantine, grateful for their support, gave them possession of the palace once Christianity became legal, and it became the seat of the bishops of Rome. In its history, five Church councils were held at the Lateran complex to discern church affairs. Some relics from the crucifixion and several papal tombs are within the walls of the Cathedral. Pope Leo XIII was the last pope buried within the basilica. Pope Francis would often sign documents as the Bishop of the Lateran Cathedral to emphasize that this is a living, important church for the faith.
In our readings today, the Church wants us to see the basilica as a vital, living source of wisdom and faith from which grace flows to the ends of the earth. In a sense, it is equated with the living Temple venerated by the Jews. Pope Francis would emphasize that he was the bishop of Rome, first and foremost, and he often visited people and places within the diocese. Being Pope could only be credible if he was a bishop of the people, who had unique and specific spiritual and pastoral needs. As Pope, he set the model that being a shepherd was not about power, glory, and prestige; it was about responsibility to the people entrusted to his care. Rome is to be a servant of the world and of the church.
The Apostle Paul talks about new temple, the new church, that is rooted and grounded in Christ. Jesus must be the foundation of a person’s life, and we are to see the dignity of each person as a child of God. Therefore, we are to treat ourselves and others with due reverence, and we must see ourselves as responsible for others who are seeking the same foundation. We might think of ourselves better than we do when Pauls asks, “Do you not know yourself as a Temple of God?” and “Do you not know that God’s Spirit is within you?” Those are mighty statements. We must rise to the occasion and see how nobly revered and holy we are. For some, those are difficult statements to accept. Acknowledge that you are holy. Acknowledge that God only sees your holiness and your goodness. Believe that God finds you to be most incredibly worthy to be esteemed, to be cherished, for your soul to be honored, and that God wants you to love yourself without reservation. You are saints of God. Period. Full Stop. Please believe it. From your temple, just like from the Church in Rome, the goodness of Christ will flow forth.
Scripture for Daily Mass
Monday: (Wisdom 1) Love justice, you who judge the earth; think of the Lord in goodness and seek him in integrity of heart; Because he is found by those who test him not, and he manifests himself to those who do not disbelieve him.
Tuesday: (Wisdom 2) God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made them. But by the envy of the Devil, death entered the world, and they who are in his possession experience it.
Wednesday: (Wisdom 6) Terribly and swiftly shall he come against you, because judgment is stern for the exalted–For the lowly may be pardoned out of mercy but the mighty shall be mightily put to the test.
Thursday: (Wisdom 7) In Wisdom is a spirit intelligent, holy, unique, Manifold, subtle, agile, clear, unstained, certain, Not baneful, loving the good, keen, unhampered, beneficent, kindly, Firm, secure, tranquil, all-powerful, all-seeing, and pervading all spirits, though they be intelligent, pure and very subtle.
Friday (Wisdom 13) All men were by nature foolish who were in ignorance of God, and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing him who is, and from studying the works did not discern the artisan.
Saturday (Wisdom 18) When peaceful stillness compassed everything and the night in its swift course was half spent, Your all-powerful word, from heaven’s royal throne bounded, a fierce warrior, into the doomed land, bearing the sharp sword of your inexorable decree.
Gospel:
Monday: (Luke 17) And the Apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith." The Lord replied, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you."
Tuesday: (Luke 17) "Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here immediately and take your place at table'? Would he not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for me to eat.
Wednesday (Luke 17) As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him. They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying, "Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!" And when he saw them, he said, "Go show yourselves to the priests."
Thursday (Luke 17) "The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, 'Look, here it is,' or, 'There it is.' For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you."
Friday (Luke 17) As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man; they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day
that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Saturday (Luke 18) He said, “There was a judge in a certain town who neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that town used to come to him and say, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’
Saints of the Week
November 9: The dedication of Rome's Lateran Basilica was done by Pope Sylvester I in 324 as the pope's local parish as the bishop of Rome. It was originally called the Most Holy Savior and was built on the property donated by the Laterani family. It is named John Lateran because the baptistry was named after St. John. Throughout the centuries, it was attacked by barbarians, suffered damage from earthquakes and fires, and provided residence for popes. In the 16th century, it went through Baroque renovations.
November 10: Leo the Great, pope and doctor (d. 461) tried to bring peace to warring Roman factions that were leaving Gaul vulnerable to barbarian invasions. As pope, he tried to keep peace again - in particular during his meeting with Attila the Hun, whom he persuaded not to plunder Rome. However, in Attila's next attack three years later, Rome was leveled. Some of Leo's writings on the incarnation were influential in formulating doctrine at the Council of Chalcedon.
November 11: Martin of Tours, bishop (316-397), became an Roman soldier in Hungary because he was born into a military family. After he became a Christian, he left the army because he saw his faith in opposition to military service. He settled in Gaul and began its first monastery. He was proclaimed bishop in 371 and worked to spread the faith in at time of great uncertainty and conflict. He divided sections of his diocese into parishes.
November 12: Josaphat, bishop and martyr (1580-1623) was a Ukranian who entered the Basilian order and was ordained in the Byzantine rite. He was named the archbishop of Polotsk, Russia and attempted to unite the Ukrainian church with Rome. His opponents killed him. He is the first Eastern saint to be formally canonized.
November 13: Francis Xavier Cabrini, religious (1850-1917) was an Italian-born daughter to a Lombardy family of 13 children. She wanted to become a nun, but needed to stay at her parents’ farm because of their poor health. A priest asked her to help work in a girls’ school and she stayed for six years before the bishop asked her to care for girls in poor schools and hospitals. With six sisters, she came to the U.S. in 1889 to work among Italian immigrants. She was the first American citizen to be canonized.
November 13: Stanislaus Kostka, S.J., religious (1550-1568) was a Polish novice who walked from his home to Rome to enter the Jesuits on his 17th birthday. He feared reprisals by his father against the Society in Poland so we went to directly see the Superior General in person. Francis Borgia admitted him after Peter Canisius had him take a month in school before applying for entrance. Because of his early death, Kostka is revered as the patron saint of Jesuit novices.
November 14: Pedro Arrupe, S.J., Superior General (1917-1991) was the 28th Superior General of the Jesuits. He was born in the Basque region of the Iberian Peninsula. He is considered one of the great reformers of the Society because he was asked by the Pope to carry out the reforms of Vatican II. November 14th is the commemoration of his birth.
November 14: Joseph Pignatelli, S.J., religious and Superior General (1737-1811) was born in Zaragosa, Spain and entered the Jesuits during a turbulent era. He was known as the unofficial leader of the Jesuits in Sardinia when the Order was suppressed and placed in exile. He worked with European leaders to continue an underground existence and he was appointed Novice Master under Catherine the Great, who allowed the Society to receive new recruits. He secured the restoration of the Society partly in 1803 and fully in 1811 and bridged a link between the two eras of the Society. He oversaw a temperate reform of the Order that assured their survival.
November 15: Albert the Great, bishop and doctor (1200-1280), joined the Dominicans to teach theology in Germany and Paris. Thomas Aquinas was his student. With his reluctance, he was made bishop of Ratisbon. He resigned after four years so he could teach again. His intellectual pursuits included philosophy, natural science, theology, and Arabic language and culture. He applied Aristotle's philosophy to theology.
This Week in Jesuit History
- November 9, 1646. In England, Fr. Edmund Neville died after nine months imprisonment and ill-treatment. An heir to large estates in Westmoreland, he was educated in the English College and spent forty years working in England.
- November 10, 1549. At Rome, the death of Paul III, to whom the Society owes its first constitution as a religious order.
- November 11, 1676. In St James's Palace, London, Claude la Colombiere preached on All Saints.
- November 12, 1919. Fr. General Ledochowski issued an instruction concerning the use of typewriters. He said that they could be allowed in offices but not in personal rooms, nor should they be carried from one house to another.
- November 13, 1865. The death of James Oliver Van de Velde, second bishop of the city of Chicago from 1848 to 1853.
- November 14, 1854. In Spain, the community left Loyola for the Balearic Isles, in conformity with a government order.
- November 15, 1628. The deaths of St Roch Gonzalez and Fr. Alphonsus Rodriguez. They were some of the architects of the Jesuit missions in Uruguay and Paraguay.
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