For the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome…
Do you not know that you are the temple of God,
and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
If anyone destroys God’s temple,
God will destroy that person;
for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17
While this Sunday’s feast day recognizes one of our great Roman churches, St. Paul, in his First Letter to the Corinthians, is speaking of the “building” that is the Body of Christ both corporately and personally as individuals.
There is much to mine here as St. Paul’s message is deeply needed in our time. But it’s that personal connection that Paul alludes to—that of our own physical bodies— that I wish to consider here. As Catholic Christians, we are called to love the body and the soul of every person, including our own. Reverence due the body, that was created by God with a soul to animate it, is why we must take care to not to harden our hearts toward ourselves or others. Such disregard for God’s highest creation—humanity—is the first step on the path toward causing great harm, and death in our world.
We must listen deeply to Paul’s words here, and to their relationship to the Fifth Commandment: “You shall not kill” (Exodus 20:13). They are the basis of the Christian life ethic that respects every living person, from the womb to the tomb.
Let’s pray with these words this weekend.
Jesus, help me to understand that my body is your temple, and you live within me. Send your grace that I might know the truth of these words in my life, and in the way I treat others.
