Tag: our body as a temple

• Ezekiel 41:16-26: The Interior of the Temple

  
  

  Ezekiel 41:16-26: The Interior of the Temple

  

  Saturday, September 24, 2022

  Do you not know that you are God’s temple; and that God’s spirit lives in you?  If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.  (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)

  Today we read a description of the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of the New Temple in the New Jerusalem. We are members, parts, living stones of this living temple.

  As high as the lintel of the door, even into the interior part of the temple as well as outside, on every wall on every side in both the inner and outer rooms were carved the figures of cherubim and palm trees: a palm tree between every two cherubim. (Ezekiel 41:17-18)

  Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?  You are not your own; you were bought at a price.  Therefore honor God with your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

  Each cherub had two faces: a man’s looking at a palm tree on one side, and a lion’s face looking on at a palm tree on the other; thus they were figured on every side throughout the whole temple. (Ezekiel 41:19)

  This is the table which is before the Lord. (Ezekiel 41:22)

  You are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built  on the foundation  of the apostles and prophets,  with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.  In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.  And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22)

  Do you not know that you are God’s temple?

  Do you not know that God’s spirit lives in you? 

  You are not your own.

  You were bought at a price. 

  You too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.  

  Amen.

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  Image from: http://ronleigh.com/bible/olivet/herods-temple.htm

  A favorite from September 10, 2008.

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  September 24, 2022

  1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Ephesians 2:19-22, Ezekiel 41:17-18, Ezekiel 41:19, Ezekiel 41:22, our body as a temple

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• Matthew 7: 6-14: Casting Pearls

  
  

  Matthew 7:6: Casting Pearls

  Tuesday, May 10, 2022

  Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces.

  This verse may be deeply meaningful for us when we consider just how precious and rare a genuine pearl is. Produced by layers of nacre, or mother-of-pearl, around a grain of sand, pearls begin as a nuisance and result as an object to be prized. Mollusks lay down deposits once they sense an intrusion in their otherwise placid lives. They transform an obstacle into an object to be admired. If we are pearls of great price, we began as these small irritants . . . and we too, are transformed into beautiful objects to be treasured.

  We are holy people. We are temples in which the Holy Spirit abides. We are children of God. We are body, soul, mind and heart. And all of this is a gift from God to be treasured and never taken lightly.

  In Song of Songs 3:4 we remember our relationship with God who loves us abundantly.  If we continue to 3:5 we also remember that our lives move best when they move in God’s plan rather than our own. All things, even love, arrive in God’s time, not ours.

  Let us recall how loved we are, and determine to return that love to God.

  Let us remember how beautiful we are, and decide to live up to that beauty.

  Let us recall how priceless we are, and choose to act as though we believe our own good fortune.

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  For another Noontime reflection on this verse, enter the words Pearls of Great Price in the blog search bar and explore.

  To learn more about how pearls form, click on the image above or visit: http://www.livescience.com/32289-how-do-oysters-make-pearls.html 

   

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  May 10, 2022

  authenticity, Children of God, God’s time and plan, our body as a temple, Song of Songs 3:4-5, transformation

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• 1 Corinthians 6: Waiting in God’s Time

  
  

  Friday, May 29, 2020

  1 Corinthians 6

  With Unity, Waiting in God’s Time

  Do you not know that your body is a temple for the Lord?            

  From the NAB footnotes: Paul’s vision becomes Trinitarian.  A temple: sacred by reason of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  Not your own: but “for the Lord”, who acquires ownership by the act of redemption.  Glorify God in your body: the argument concludes with a positive imperative to supplement to avoid the negative “avoid immorality” with v. 18.  Far from being a terrain that is morally indifferent, the area of sexuality is one in which our relationship with God (and his Christ and his Spirit) is very intimately expressed: he is either highly glorified or deeply offended.

  We do not belong to ourselves.  We belong to God.  As individuals we are temples.  As a community we are a temple.  We are a temple meant as a dwelling place for the Spirit, for God, for Christ’s Mystical Body.

  From the Harper Collins Commentary:  Just as Jewish moral tradition of the Diaspora stressed that sexual immorality is the result of idolatry in order to underline the distinction between Israel and the nations, so too Paul insists that holiness and purity with regard to sexual morality are the distinctive marks of the Christian community. 

  In a relativistic society we can be distracted by the idea that God is present in all things that feel good.  This is not so.  God dwells in his temples, the ones he created in us and St. Paul reminds us of this.  In our most dear relationships we find God in the intimate gestures and words we share with another.  We see and feel and hear the God we express . . .  reflected in the other.  This is why God created us: To know him, to love him, to serve him in the here and now and in the forever . . . in God’s timelessness.  We so often forget this and so we might ask ourselves: Do we glorify the Lord in our intimate relationships or do we offend?  Do we build up or do we break down?  Do we bring unity or isolation?  How do we serve and wait on the Lord while also showing that we understand God’s goodness and timelessness?

  Tomorrow, learning to trust the Trinity . . .

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  Mays, James L., ed.  HARPERCOLLINS BIBLE COMMENTARY. New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1988. 1080. Print.

  Adapted from a reflection written on February 7, 2008.

  Image rom: http://eternalchurch.net/who-we-are

  39.533225 -76.430369

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  May 29, 2020

  God’s time, our body as a temple, timelessness, Trinity

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• Leviticus 18 & 19: Holiness

  
  

  

  Leviticus 18 & 19: Holiness

  Thursday, December 12, 2019

  Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy.

  The Book of Leviticus is often overlooked because it is a compendium of hundreds of laws governing not only the major forces of life but also the minutiae.  Today the Bible opens to these two chapters which deal with sexual and social conduct . . . two areas that we tend to confuse in society today.

  This week at Mass we are reading from Revelation through which we might investigate our relationship with God’s as a conjugal relation: that intimate place where both God and we commune.  Commentary and reflection time will lead us to questions: What do our interactions with others say about our relationship with God?  What do out actions in the world say about our belief in God?  How do our words and actions express God in the world?

  We might have a quick response prepared that we have readied in the event that someone or some life event calls us to think about how we might experience an “end time”.  We do ourselves a favor when we linger with these words, and when we allow ourselves to remember other scripture verses.

  Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God?  You are not your own.  You were bought at a price.  Therefore honor God with your body.  (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

  This attitude of honoring God through all we do is sometimes lost on us.  We are a people wanting to have our own way in all things at all times.  We seek quick, easy and superficial gratification, fearing to stay long in any one place or with any one person, thinking this mode of living too staid, too conventional . . . too silly and un-hip . . . too boring.

  What is it we fear in committing ourselves to a constant and faithful life?  Do we want to leave all options open to the last possible moment?  Are we waiting for something better to come along?  Do we shrink from being controlled without noticing that this reluctance to enter into relationship is a passive form of control?  How are we to behave?  What are we to say and think?  How are we to act?

  We are made in God’s image.  We have only to look at how the creator treats us to know how to be holy . . . and then we must try to emulate this behavior.

  Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy.

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  Written on November 17, 2008. Re-written and posted today as a Favorite.

  Image from: http://dwellingintheword.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/379-2-samuel-7/

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  December 12, 2019

  1 Corinthians 6, our body as a temple, relationship with God, Revelation

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