Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Lent

destroy this temple and in three days i will raise it up you know this line in the gospel today reminds me of a story about the turning point in the life of saint francis of assisi we are told that after saint francis returned from war traumatized and very disillusioned he found himself walking without direction one day along the hills of umbria he entered the ruined church of san damiano he looked up above the altar and he saw the icon of the cross the image of christ painted right on the cross the byzantine style france is felt like the eyes of jesus locked him in a stair and he found himself asking jesus lord what is it that you want me to do with my life and the answer that he got was francis go and rebuild my church which as you see is falling apart rebuild my church which is falling apart and he took it literally he rebuilt the ruined church of san damiano stoned by stone with the help of his friends only to realize later on that the lord actually meant it figuratively during that time when the church had deteriorated practically into a worldly empire and the church leaders including the popes and the cardinals and the bishops were behaving like emperors like princes and governors francis was a prophetic counter sign he became the humble but strong voice of renewal in the church long before the second vatican council happened uncontemporary isis dominic they both established mendicant religious orders and the two of them francis and dominic are now listed among the great reformers of the church in today's gospel john tells who were making his father's house into a marketplace he also said destroy this temple and in three days i will raise it up and some of the people who heard him reacted and they said to one another three days it took 46 years for this temple to be [Music] reconstructed it was destroyed by the babylonians and then it was reconstructed for 46 years and you will build it up in three days rebuild it but john would say by way of a parenthetical remark he's telling the story and then he's telling the audience is his body he was referring to the temple of his body just a few days ago we celebrated the dedication of one of the new churches in our diocese the parish church of tanzania i reminded the parishioners that for us christians our chapels our shrines our parish churches are no longer to be regarded as temples of course they are important but only as venues for worship instead of calling them houses of god baha'i it is better to refer to them as houses of the people of god hindi otherwise if you think you can build a house for god you might also think you can confine god within the four walls of a building the temple jesus said he was going to rebuild was his own body both in the literal sense of the human body as the dwelling place of the holy spirit and in the figurative sense of the collective the collective body of the church the community of disciples what saint paul calls the body of christ so let's start doing some literal sense our bodies are sacred does not the book of genesis say we are image and likeness of god the tu galen young concept of the basic dignity of every human person no matter what their color or gender or religion or social status might be like and therefore we cannot claim to love god without learning to love our fellow human beings as ourselves love god above all and love your neighbor as yourself and to violate the humanity of a fellow human being is to desecrate the temple of god who would enter churches and destroy our sacred images and i'm sure if that were to happen here kumeru akit jan atitata we are shocked when our sacred images are desecrated but why are we not shocked when women and children are sold like slaves or prostituted are victimized by human traffickers why do we not see it as desecration when the poor especially workers are exploited for profits why are we not shocked when mere suspects of involvement in drugs or in insurgency are summarily executed or when the human body is reduced into a sexual object by pornography or when the unborn human beings are terminated from the womb must shocking young i don't care how many images they will destroy but i do care about the temple of the holy spirit and we are asked by the lord to regard our human bodies are sacred we desecrate god's temple when we disrespect when we trample upon the dignity of our fellow human beings saint paul says this in the first letter to the corinthians chapter 3 verses 16 to 17 if anyone destroys the temple of god god will destroy that person for the temple of god which you are is holy let's never forget that we are holy in spite of all our sinfulness we are temples of god catholics the most sacred part of the church is this sanctuary area case of the church the place from which the word of god is proclaimed in fact when we enter the church we are expected to bow to the direction of the altar because this is where the eucharist is consecrated we are expected to genuflect to the direction of the tabernacle because it houses the eucharistic body of christ but please don't forget you receive the body of christ when you come for holy communion and so do you not realize that upon receiving the body of christ you become the living tabernacle of the body of christ the moment you receive christ that we receive christ precisely so that we can grow into his body the church remember early christians one day he was traveling to damascus and he was struck down by a blinding light the bulaksha and then he heard the voice that confronted him what did the voice say hindi sinha being soul soul why are you persecuting them christ so so why are you persecuting me you heard a fellow disciple you heard jesus christ the new temple is the body of christ and we become that temple when we gather together in the name of christ like now when people are looking for christ the reason christ is most present in you in us we are the living presence of christ he is most present in the community of his disciples bonded together in the one spirit that we have received at baptism in the basin abbey jesus for where two or three are gathered together in my name there i am in the midst of them one of the biggest challenges for all our parishes is to return to the basics of building or restoring not temples of stone but living temples in our christian communities for the past so many weekends now bec leaders nathan have been undergoing some sessions for their vision and mission formulation and whenever invited to address them i tell them you are really the church builders because kaitman the body of christ is not there the most fundamental thing is the building of the community of the disciples of christ to gather in the name of jesus to be abundant in the word of god to grow together in the life of discipleship and mission this is what it means to be church press they literally disappeared it was so heartbreaking but then one day i found myself celebrating in an evacuation center celebrating the holy eucharist and in the middle of the mass as the people were singing from their heart at the celebration of the eucharist and i realized it was in bahama in the wasak the church is alive it made me realize that only our places of worship were destroyed not the worshiping community which remains alive hindi let us never forget that to be a christian is to be christ christ present not 2000 years ago but christ present now and carrying on with the work of redemption when we gather in his name the new temple is the new humanity that we live in christ as members as parts of his body the church and please do not forget this new humanity is no longer to be associated with sin and fall but rather with grace and redemption

Channel: Diocese of Kalookan

Views: 11,080

Keywords:

Id: XYSFbkh1acI

Length: 19min 30sec (1170 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 06 2021