Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome

In our readings and Gospel today, they are all part of one movement discussing a temple. Some say the new Jerusalem when he comes again. Some see it as an allegory for his church. But for us we can move past Ezekiel, at least for today and on to Paul’s writings and our Gospel for the temple that Jews worshipped is now intertwined with the temple of our bodies where the Holy Spirit is to reside. We are told that all we build in life whether it is a real house or a life or a body, all are to be done with Jesus as the foundation.

And that is an important but often times heard but set aside as “true but not much else is thought about it.”

We hear that Jesus must be what we build a life on, and we hear our bodies are now the temple of the Lord and we move on for the image or idea is too abstract for us to flesh out in a casual hearing of these texts.

Our bodies are to be Holy Temples. Sacred, clean, cared for, properly nourished and tended to. We are the caretakers and the builders for our bodies continue to grow or change and need us to give it the food and rest and exercise and to never profane it by sin or recklessly endanger it. Like our life in general, it is a precious and valuable gift given by God when we were created in the womb. How we take care of it and how we dress it and use it should always be with the perspective of remembering this is the temple of God in truth. If the Holy Spirit cannot reside within because of sin, we have stolen and used what belongs to another, for wasteful purposes.

Our lives too, are to be cared for, just as we care for these bodies we have been given for a life that does not have Christ as the base and structure and model and goal is not only wasted but is again stolen from Jesus Christ.

In our spiritual journey, it is often the case we delay and only finally surrender our lives to Jesus Christ as we struggle. Usually when we are at a point where everything we have tried has failed and so we turn to God and use the surrender prayer to give him all we have and all we are. Interestingly, even then  we see our bodies and work and life as things we give to God. But they were already Gods to begin with. We aren’t surrendering ownership and control. We are opening our eyes to see we were never really in control at all. We were operators at best of this life, not property owners. And we fail to use the operators guide as Jesus gave us in his teachings. So, nothing seems to make sense and work together until we open up scripture and his teachings (operational  instructions) and live with Jesus as our guide.

Jesus is our spiritual guide and our tour guide and the Gospel is our manual for living as we were supposed to live from the beginning. He gave us bodies and a station where he has a plan for us to help build the kingdom.

Today we are to start using the body and blessings and love and people he shared with us, and build a life built on the foundation of Jesus Christ with the Spirit as the project manager overall.