31st Week of Ordinary Time, Thursday, 11-9-23, Year A
Readings: 1st Reading Ez 47:1-2,8-9,12; Ps 46:2-3,5-6,8-9; 2nd Reading 1 Cor 3:9c-11,16-17; Gospel Jn 2:13-22
Feast: The Dedication of The Lateran Basilica
Theme: The Temple of God
A long time ago, back in college, I was at a summer party at a friend’s parents’ home. The parents were gone so it was decided that we all would gather there for a party. A keg of beer was purchased and set up in the driveway. We gathered in and around the house. It was a low-key affair but, nonetheless, the beer was flowing and the music loud.
Not long into the party, my friend’s parents pulled into the driveway. They had decided to come home early. They were not happy, to say the least. They gathered us together in the kitchen and admonished us for the party. I remember thinking that this was ridiculous because we were all of age and we were not really doing anything terrible or outrageous. But the mother said something that stuck with me years later.
She said to us, “Do you understand what you are doing to your bodies by smoking, drinking, and carrying on? Not only are you polluting your bodies and harming them, but you are also polluting and harming the very temple of God. Your body is a temple for the Holy Spirit. What you do to it you do, in a way, to your soul and the Holy Spirit.”
Their home was one of faith and love for God, and for us to be there making a mess of things and partying on, was a disgrace to them.
I did not think much of that for a long time. I was just glad to get out of there and carry on the party somewhere else. But, in that mother’s own way, she was right. We were disrespectful of her home and of the very soul and Holy Spirit that lived within us.
We talk about churches, temples, and buildings of worship and that we come to meet God there. They are to be respected, cherished, and places of holiness and grace. We take care of our churches and find peace there. But these buildings are just buildings, places where we can gather as living stones in the body of Christ.
The true temple is within our hearts and souls. The gift of the Holy Spirit was given to us at Baptism and now resides in us. The third person of God, the Holy Spirit, remains there through all the torments and hard living we have done. We would do well to respect the temples of our bodies like we do the brick and mortar of our church buildings.
St. Paul says it best, “You are God’s building.” “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
Saint James Catholic Church 