The Temple of God

St. Joseph Church (Cottleville)
Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
November 9, 2008 - 8:45 & 10:30 a.m.

Ez 47:1-2, 8-9, 12
Ps 46
1 Cor 3:9c-11, 16-17
Jn 2:13-22

Today seems like an odd feast to celebrate. We’re not marking a recalling in the life of our Lord of His Mother. We’re not commemorating a particular saint who has had an important part to play in the history of the Church. We are marking the anniversary of the dedication of a church in Rome. The Lateran Basilica was built by Constantine in Rome in the 4th century. You may recall that Constantine was the first Roman emperor to approve of Christianity. Before that, Christians were not allowed to practice their faith publicly, and, when they did, they were subjected to persecution and martyrdom. They would gather to celebrate Mass in secret in homes that had been set apart for the use of the community. After legalizing Christianity in the Roman Empire, Constantine had a great basilica built on the Lateran Hill in Rome. Although several disasters have led to various parts of the basilica being rebuilt and renovated, a church has stood on the site continuously for seventeen hundred years. The building of the Lateran Basilica was a sign to the world that God had come to dwell in the world in a radically new way, through His own Son who had assumed human flesh and died and rose to save us from our sin. No longer was the spread of this good news hindered by the Roman government. It became public for all to see. This is why the Church celebrates this day with such joy. This particular church building reminds us that Christ’s saving work continues in our world, that He continues to dwell among us and to lead us as one Body, His Body, into communion with His Father and the Holy Spirit.

Every church building reminds us of this same truth, that Christ continues to live and work among us. What is perhaps even more incredible is that every church building in our world is a reminder to us of what St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians nearly two thousand years ago: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” These are indeed incredible words. For the Jews at the time of Paul, the Temple was the holiest place on the face of the earth. It was God’s dwelling with His people. For this reason, Jews would often make pilgrimages to the Temple to enter God’s dwelling place, to know the presence of their Creator. With the coming of Jesus Christ and the sending of the Holy Spirit, that all changed. God’s holy presence was no longer bound to a particular geographic location. He came to dwell not in a building of stone and mortar but in the hearts of His people. This is what St. Paul was getting at. He was reminding the early Christians of their great dignity, which comes from the fact that the Holy Spirit was dwelling within each one of them.

This mystery continues today. Each and every Christian has become God’s temple, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. But how does this happen? How does God come to dwell in our hearts? It happens through the sacraments, which were given to the Church by Christ Himself as the means by which the Holy Spirit would dwell in the hearts of the faithful. It all begins at that most sacred moment of Baptism. So often we see Baptism as simply a nice ritual marking the birth of a child, simply the beginning of the journey of faith. It is so much more than this! At that moment, God truly comes to dwell in the hearts of His sons and daughters! We are made into Temples of the living God.

Our Lord knew that this new life of grace received at Baptism would need to be sustained and nourished over time, and so He gave us the gift of another sacrament – the Holy Eucharist. When we receive Holy Communion, our Lord Jesus Christ comes into our hearts in a very real way to breathe into us anew the Gift of the Holy Spirit. The Church nourishes us weekly, even daily, with this sacrament so that God’s presence within us, His temples, will abide.

Like the Jewish Temple at the time of Christ, our Lord’s temples can at times become polluted and in need of purification. When we choose sin, we bring into our hearts, which are the temple of the Holy Spirit, things that are not holy, things that should not exist in the temple of God. Our Lord foresaw this and so He gave to the Church yet another sacrament that is so essential to our Christian life – the Sacrament of Penance. In this sacrament, our Lord enters His temple no longer with a whip but with His mercy to cleanse us, to make us once again worthy dwelling places for His Holy Spirit.

This is why it is so important for us to receive the sacraments often. Baptism, we know, we receive once. After that, the grace received in Baptism is nourished and renewed in us through the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist. So today it would be good to ask ourselves a few questions. How long has it been since I’ve been to confession? If it has been a long time, what is keeping me from approaching to receive God’s mercy? What is holding me back from allowing Him to cleanse my heart from all that pollutes it? Do I have a hard time understanding why the Church asks me to confess my sins to a priest? Do I need to study and come to better understand this sacrament? What about the Holy Eucharist? Do I come forward to receive Holy Communion out of routine, not really thinking about what it is that is being given to me? Do I ever come to receive Holy Communion when I have committed serious sin and need to go to confession first? Am I fostering a love for the Holy Eucharist through prayer before the Blessed Sacrament outside of Mass? Perhaps today, during the rest of this Mass, we could reflect upon the great gift God has given us in these sacraments and renew our resolve to receive them often and worthily.

Continually welcoming God to dwell within our hearts as His temple is important for our own eternal salvation, but that’s not all. Our world is desperately in need of God’s presence. Many words have been spoken and written these past months about the great crisis in which we find ourselves today, about the millions of lives affected by the reality of abortion, euthanasia, and other elements of the culture of death. These aren’t things that should concern us only in the days leading up to an election. They are significant every day. Our culture will only be transformed into a civilization of love, a culture of life, when we allow ourselves to be pure dwelling places for the Holy Spirit. When we allow that to happen, we will become instruments through which life-giving water will flow throughout the world. The river of God’s love will flow through us to water and soften even the hardest of hearts. Then we will begin to see a radical transformation of our society. Then we will all repeat together the words of today’s responsorial psalm: “The Lord of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob. Come! Behold the deeds of the Lord, the astounding things he has wrought on the earth.”