Respect the House of God, Respect God’s Temple; Your Body.


Saturday 9th November 2019. Bible Study: Ezekiel 47:1-12, Psalm 46:2-9, 1 Corinthians 3:9-11, 16-17 & John 2:13-22.


_“He spoke of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. *(John 2:21-22)*_

Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica which is one of the great churches in Rome. Our celebration today affords us the opportunity to reflect on the meaning of “Dedication” and its impact on our relationship with God.

To say a building or any object at all is dedicated to God is to say such can never be used for any other purpose other than for God. This is because, by the act of dedication, the presence of God has been invoked upon such.

A dedicated Church building is not any building, it is a place to meet God, a place to pray, a place of security and peace. Walking into a dedicated Church fully conscious of God’s presence is like stepping into heaven. The beauty of a dedicated evokes the heart to prayer and deepens the faith of the believer.

Using figurative language, Ezekiel describes the house of God as place from which flows grace, power, life, health and wealth like a river. Ezekiel says: “Wherever the river flows, every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live, and there shall be abundant fish, for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh. Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow; their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail. Every month they shall bear fresh fruit, for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary. Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine.”

The point here is that there is a whole world of difference between a church building and a Dedicated Church. The fact that people are gathering in a place and they call it a church does not make it God’s House. This clarification is important given that we live in an age where charlatans and satanic agents have hijacked the concept of church for personal monetary gains and to simply destroy the faith.

In today’s Gospel passage, we hear Jesus say: “you shall not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” Sadly, this evil continues in our churches today. In the name of fund-raising, harvest donation and launching, we forget that we are in God’s house. Right inside the church, we sell cooked food, anointing oils, blessed water etc. Not only do we desecrate God’s house by trade, we sell these items outrageously beyond their real market prices.  We are worse than those Jesus drove of the Temple.

Of course, we need money to build more churches and we need money to maintain them but we commit sin when we commercialize God; it is one thing to appeal for funds and respect people’s decision not to give but it is evil to say that they can buy healing power, business success, family breakthrough and so on through these items sold in church.

The Jews demanded a sign from God to prove that His action of cleansing of the Temple is correct. Jesus used the occasion to draw their attention to the fact that our very bodies are temples where God dwells by saying: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” This is exactly the point St. Paul emphasizes in today’s second reading: “You are God’s building… For God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are.” Just as we need to avoid desecrating the physical building where God dwells, we must strive daily to keep ourselves free from sin, impure thoughts, lust, greed and every other vice which corrupts us.

Let us pray: Lord Jesus, deepen my respect for your temple. Amen.

Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you. (Feast of the Dedication of Lateran Basilica. Bible Study: Ezekiel 47:1-12, Psalm 46:2-9, 1 Corinthians 3:9-11, 16-17, John 2:13-22).

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