SMALL BEGINNINGS, BIG ENDINGS

READINGS: FEAST OF THE DEDICATION OF THE LATERAN BASILICA

On this Sunday, we celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome, the Church’s “mother church”, a visible structure symbolizing the life-giving outreach of God’s grace to humanity that heals, feeds, and transforms. In the 1^st reading (Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12), we read about the temple from which trickles of water turned into a river flowing into the salt sea, and turned the lifeless sea into a fresh, life-giving, river. In the 2nd reading (1 Corinthians 3:9c-11, 16-17) St. Paul equates our life to this temple. In the gospel reading (John 2:13-22), Jesus cleanses the temple of what was defacing and detracting it from its function.   

It is important to note that this river, in Ezekiel’s temple was formed by trickles of water. This is how grace operates—small beginnings. It usually doesn’t burst through the roof but begins as a trickle—a whisper to pray again, a nudge to forgive, a five-minute return to Scripture, an honest conversation, an admission that I have sinned. Yes, rivers are just trickles of water over time. It is always about small beginnings with a consistent, persistent, and unyielding spirit that manifest into great outcomes.

The trickles of water didn’t form a pool in the sanctuary; it flowed downstream toward the east, toward the world, toward the lowest and driest places. My friends, if our prayer and worship never leave the church to spill into our workplace, our home, our neighborhood, it has become a pond, not a river. Grace is meant to flow through us, not just within us, to bring life to what is out there. The river from Ezekiel’s temple flowed into the salt seas and transformed it into life-giving water that brought freshness, life, fruit, and healing. As temples of the Living God, our presence, words, and actions, ought to be a source of life-giving spirit and healing to all forms of brokenness around us as we move from clutching to sharing, from numbness to compassion, from talk to courageous walk, and from “someday” to “now”. 

Rivers cannot flow if the source is left to dry up nor can it keep flowing downstream if the water channels are clogged. Our power to keep the source from drying up lies in worship—prayer, Word, Eucharist, reconciliation. What clogs the channel of flow are resentments, secret sins, perfectionism, procrastination, unforgiveness, hate, wrath, envy, slander, jealousy etc. Our job, therefore, is to keep the source of our river open, keep the channels clear of clogs, and keep the river flowing down into humanity with healing and life-giving grace.