Lectio Divina: Feast of the dedication of the Lateran basilica
Commentary for Dedication of St John Lateran Basilica
Commentary on Ezech 47:1-2, 8-9, 12→
Ezekiel had an apocalyptic vision in which he saw water was streaming eastward from the temple. The stream passed the altar of sacrifice in the inner court, through the outer court, and out of the temple complex along the south side of the outer eastern gate. The divine messenger took Ezekiel to explore the extent of this stream. The depth increased from ankle deep, to knee deep, to waist deep, and finally to a depth in which one would have to swim. At the four-thousand-cubit mark, the stream had become a river of such magnitude that it could not be crossed. This river flowed into the Dead Sea and caused that sea to become alive. The basic purpose of this divine river was to bring life. Many trees lined its sides. Every kind of fruit tree grew on both sides. Their leaves never withered and bore fruit every month of the year because the divine river watered these trees. Their fruit provided food, and their leaves provided healing . The entire Dead Sea and the Arabah were healed by these waters, causing the Dead Sea to swarm with marine life. Only the swamps and marshes were not healed. They were left to provide salt for the people. Everywhere else the river brought its life-giving power.
This river was similar to a river in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 2:8-10 God provided a river that gave life to the land in that perfect environment. That life-giving river dried up with the fall of man. Now, in Ezekiel and the Revelation, the full redemption of the land would be completed. Once again, the divine life-giving waters would flow from the source of God's residence, the temple, and heal the land. The river in Revelation 22:1-2 is extremely similar to the one described in Ezekiel 47. “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” Though Revelation 22:2 only mentions the tree of life on either side of the river, it seems that the word "tree" in that context is most likely used in a collective sense. The variance between Ezekiel's account of this river and that of John in the Revelation centers on the river's source. God is the source of both rivers; but Ezekiel saw the river issuing from the temple, whereas John saw the river coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb (a temple not existing according to Rev 21:22). The river in Revelation 22:2 also flowed down the city's street, which seems difficult, but not impossible, in the Ezekiel account.
Ezekiel 47:1–12 is widely interpreted as a prophetic prefiguration of the Holy Spirit, especially in Christian theological and liturgical traditions.
Source from the Temple: The water flows from the sanctuary, symbolizing God’s presence. In Christian theology, this aligns with the Spirit proceeding from the Father (and the Son), flowing into the world from the heart of divine communion.
Increasing Depth: The river deepens from ankle to knee to waist to swimming depth. This progression is often interpreted as stages of spiritual growth, or the increasing influence of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life.
Healing and Life: The river transforms the Dead Sea into fresh water, and trees along its banks bear fruit monthly with leaves for healing. This evokes the life-giving and healing power of the Spirit, echoing Jesus’ promise in John 7:38: “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water,” referring to the Spirit. We are told that Jesus was the living temple from whose wounded side flowed the water of the Spirit and that by his wounds, our wounds are healed.
Missional Flow: The river flows eastward—symbolically away from Eden and toward the nations. This outward movement reflects the Spirit’s mission to spread life and renewal beyond the confines of the temple, as seen in Acts 1:8.
Commentary on Jn 2:13-22→
Built by Herod the Great around 20 BCE, the temple was a massive expansion of the Second Temple originally constructed in 516 BC. It was completed around 64 AD, just six years before its destruction by the Romans in 70 AD. Herod , turned the modest temple into a grand complex covering 35 acres. It was constructed using white limestone and marble, and adorned with gold and bronze, making it a dazzling sight. The Temple Mount platform was expanded using debris from a leveled mountain, supported by massive retaining walls—some stones were 30 feet long and weighed 50 tons. The temple was the center of Jewish worship. It featured multiple courtyards: that of the Gentiles which was accessible to non-Jews, the Inner courts: which were restricted to Jewish worshippers. Then there was the Holy of Holies: the most sacred area, entered only by the High Priest once a year on Yom Kippur. The temple became a symbol of Jewish identity and pride. John places the description of Jesus going to the temple, (cf. Mal 3:1, “The Lord shall suddenly come to His temple”) at the beginning of his Gospel, whereas the other evangelists placed it at the end. It was Passover, the most important of the three major Jewish feasts. It commemorated how God had delivered the Jews from the hands of Pharoah at the time of the exodus.
Hundreds of thousands of Jews and non-Jews from far and wide visited the temple for the feast. The events described took place in the large court of the Gentiles. Non-Jews were not allowed to enter the inner temple area under pain of death. This seemed contrary to Is 56:7 which says, “My Temple will be called a house of prayer for the people of all nations.”
The high priest Caiaphas allowed the sale of cattle and doves and the privilege of exchanging money in the temple court as a convenience for pilgrims who would need animals for sacrifice and temple currency to pay their dues. The concessions had become a means of making money for the authorities and had debased the sacred nature of the temple, especially for Gentile visitors. In former times such transactions took place outside its precincts. If people, especially the poor, bought animals in the city of Jerusalem, they would be judged to be unsuitable and refused entry as a sacrificial offering. As a result, they needed to be bought in the temple with temple currency, at rip off prices. Jesus was outraged.
Firstly, these commercial activities were often unjust and exploitative.
Secondly, they were incompatible with the purpose of the temple, namely the worship of God. Perhaps he also was frustrated by the way Gentiles were cut off from the inner temple precincts.
We are told that Jesus, full of righteous anger, used a whip to chase the animals out of the temple and disrupted the activities of the money changers. Implicit in this incident was an indictment of Jewish religion as a whole because it failed to accept the promised Messiah in the person of Jesus. The cursing of the fig tree in Mark 11:12-25, because it bore no fruit, was a symbol of the Jewish religion. When the Jews asked Jesus to justify his behavior with a sign, he spoke about the manner in which the temple of his body would be destroyed on the cross only to be raised to glorious new life after three days. As St Paul said in Eph 2:14, “For Christ himself has brought us peace by making Jews and Gentiles one people. With his own body he broke down the wall that separated them and kept them enemies” i.e., the wall in the temple which separated Jew and Gentile.
At a secondary level, Jesus was implicitly foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, an event that would mark the end of the old Jewish way of worship, and the inauguration of the Christian era, when worship would no longer be confined to a specific place. As Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, “the time is coming and is already here, when by the power of God's Spirit people will worship the Father as he really is, offering him the true worship that he wants. God is Spirit, and only by the power of his Spirit can people worship him as he really is” (Jn 4:22-24). In Rm 12:1 St Paul said, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” The time of animal sacrifice was over; Jesus is now and forever the sacrificial lamb. The Gospel reading concludes the description of the cleansing of the temple by saying that many people came to believe in the name of Jesus.