εὐαγγελίζω (euaggelizo)
“to announce the Good News of victory in battle”
“to announce the Good News of victory in battle”
“He made a whip out of cords and
drove them all out of the temple area,
with the sheep and oxen, and
spilled the coins of the money-changers and
overturned their tables, and
to those who sold doves He said,
“Take these out of here, and
stop making My Father’s house a marketplace.”
His disciples recalled the words of Scripture,
“Zeal for Your house will consume me.””
drove them all out of the temple area,
with the sheep and oxen, and
spilled the coins of the money-changers and
overturned their tables, and
to those who sold doves He said,
“Take these out of here, and
stop making My Father’s house a marketplace.”
His disciples recalled the words of Scripture,
“Zeal for Your house will consume me.””
On this day in 324, Pope Sylvester I dedicated the Cathedral Church for the Diocese of Rome. So why does the entire, world-wide Church mark this occasion on a Sunday? We are accustomed to celebrating the Most Holy Eucharist on Sundays in Ordinary Time, or Sundays of Advent, of Lent or of Easter. But why does the anniversary of dedicating this Church ‘bump’ a Sunday in Ordinary Time? Like last week’s Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed, there are some days throughout the Church year that highlight essential aspects of our faith in Jesus Christ and His Body, the Church. Today is such a day as this Basilica (a title given to special Churches) is the Cathedral Church for the Diocese of Rome, hence the Pope’s Cathedral (since he is the Bishop of Rome) and the Mother Church of all Christian Churches. While the Basilica is named for Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist, why Lateran? Some brief history is in order.
The during the reign of Emperor Nero, a Roman family, the Laterani, lost their property to the Emperor when a family member was accused of some unknown impropriety against Nero. From the time of Nero to the early years of the fourth century, the ownership history is somewhat sketchy but the property eventually passed to Constantine’s wife, Fausta. With Constantine’s proclamation of the Edict of Toleration (313), the Roman Empire’s relationship with the Church changed dramatically. Not only were bishops appointed civil magistrates by the emperor, Constantine also began aggressively renovating existing Roman buildings and permitting the bishops to use them for places for Church gatherings, meetings and most especially worship.
The during the reign of Emperor Nero, a Roman family, the Laterani, lost their property to the Emperor when a family member was accused of some unknown impropriety against Nero. From the time of Nero to the early years of the fourth century, the ownership history is somewhat sketchy but the property eventually passed to Constantine’s wife, Fausta. With Constantine’s proclamation of the Edict of Toleration (313), the Roman Empire’s relationship with the Church changed dramatically. Not only were bishops appointed civil magistrates by the emperor, Constantine also began aggressively renovating existing Roman buildings and permitting the bishops to use them for places for Church gatherings, meetings and most especially worship.
New buildings were also constructed during this time and dedicated as Churches to signal the Church’s clear and visible presence in the Empire. Robin Jensen notes that this ‘church building campaign’ “symbolized the beginning of Christianity’s transition from a minority community adapting what it had available and expressing itself in familiar terms, to a powerful, wealthy and dominant segment of the population, now able to determine the forms and styles by which it expressed its own cultural identity. The imposing scale and potential grandeur of the basilica design well suited the gradually more elaborate liturgy, even as it reflected the changed social and political status of the church and became a definitive and monumental symbol of the church’s new self-understanding and cultural integration (Christianity: Origins to Constantine, page 585).
