“Zeal for your house devours me.” Jn. 2:13-22

Today the church celebrates the consecration of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, Episcopal See of the Pope, Bishop of Rome. The passage from John tells us about Jesus going up as a pilgrim to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of the Passover, the memorial of liberation from slavery. He finds the temple turned into a marketplace and with a whip He sends them away because they had disfigured the house of God. “Do not turn my Father’s house into a marketplace.” The disciples remembered that text: “Zeal for your house devours me.” Jesus spoke of the temple of his body, for the temple is Christ himself.  That is why it is around him, in his presence, that we gather in prayer and the celebration of Thanksgiving, where what we celebrate is communion in fraternity.