Bible
Study: 1 Kings 8, 22 to 30. Mark 7, 1 to
13.
Today’s
readings pick off from those of yesterday. Solomon had just built a magnificent
temple for the worship of God and offers the prayers of dedication. Even from
the tone of his prayer, Solomon acknowledges the fact that God is everywhere
and the earth itself is too small a place for him to dwell in, so he asks that whenever
God’s people are gathered in the temple to pray, God should please listen to their
petitions.
As at the
time of Solomon, Jesus had not come to die for our sins, there was no such
thing as the Holy Eucharist kept in the tabernacle. Now we can walk into the
Blessed Sacrament and behold, there we are face to face with God. What a
privilege! “For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the
LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?” Deuteronomy 4, 7.
When Jesus
cleansed the temple and drove out the money changers, he was asked for a sign
to prove the validity of his action and he said: “Destroy this temple, and in
three days, I will raise it up.” John 2, 19. From this statement of Jesus, we
get to see that even our very bodies are temples where God also dwells. This is
why St. Paul would say in 1st Corinthians 6, verse 19: “Do you not
know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have
from God?”
In our
Gospel passage this morning, Jesus is speaking of how we can make the temples
of our bodies clean. He says we should bother more about the inside than the
outside. Our religion should not be about external observances that people can
see. Quoting from Isaiah, Jesus says: “These people honours me with their lips,
yet their hearts are far from me, in vain do they worship me teaching as
doctrines the precepts of men.”
Much of
our external religious practices such as how to bow in the church, the type of
head-style to keep, the time to sit or stand etc. are mere human regulations. They
are not as important as the content of our hearts. It is right there, deep
inside the heart that we worship God. And so, keeping the temples of our bodies
clean requires that we keep away from those things that defile us from within. “For
from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft,
murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander,
pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a
man.” Mark 7, 21 to 23.
As a rule
of thumb, to clean the temple, you must begin from the inside! To have a clean
personality, you must first clean your thoughts!
Let us
Pray:
Lord
Jesus, help me to respect your house and keep my body clean at all times as
your special dwelling place. Amen.
God bless you. Good morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is
well with you.
No comments:
Post a Comment