February 20, 2011

Are you a Temple of the Holy Spirit?  In the old Baltimore Catechism it said that each of us was made a Temple of the Holy Spirit at our Baptism.  I remember, even as a kid, thinking about how much dignity that gave each individual person.  On the other hand, how often did you talk about being a Temple of the Holy Spirit, except when you did something wrong and you parents wanted to emphasize what a bad thing you had done to yourself or someone else? I have to admit that it was difficult at times accepting my little brother and sister as Temples of the Holy Spirit.

Today we hear the question in 1 Corinthians, “Do you know that you are a Temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells within you?” and I said to myself what a wonderful starting off point to talk about that teaching and to talk about human dignity . . . only to discover that I didn’t have it quite right.  The “you” he is talking to is in this instance is a plural, i.e. .the entire Corinthian community.  Paul is telling the Corinthians that they together, not individually, are the Temple of God in which God’s Spirit dwells. 

T he letter to the Corinthian is really very unique in the New Testament.   I would like to give you a flavor of how rich and unique it truly is.  In its own way, this letter can help us to see our lives as Christians, as it reveals the community’s struggles and the spiritual depth of St. Pau’s own soul.  Some letters in New Testament, like Romans or Hebrews, read like theological texts, more theoretical and general.  Corinthians is much more down to earth and related to what was actually happening in the community.   It was a community that was being pulled apart, much like our Church at times, or even what happened here twenty years ago when factions and groups within the parish were in competition or opposition.   In Corinthians I Paul is always addressing a certain problem.  Paul is always appealing to his role as the founding pastor of the Corinthian Community and as an Apostle who had seen the Resurrected Christ. 

St. Paul was a missionary pastor.  Sent out by the leaders of the Christian community in Damascus, he would found a community in city, preached to build up its members, and then supported himself by working and staying with it until he felt that it could stand on its own.  He would then move to another city and start all over again. Occasionally he would revisit.   Paul felt a special attachment and kept contacts to guide these communities after he left, using his letters to praise, cajole, and instruct.

Paul begins this section calling himself a wise builder who laid the foundation of the community.  A building can have only one foundation, and that foundation is the Jesus Christ.  This was literally and figuratively true.  In the ancient world you might have a collapse or a fire, you might raise a building to the ground – but you began to build right on the same foundation.  There was a very famous treatise in Greek about temple building and Paul begins to allude to it, drawing an analogy to the materials used to construct such an edifice.  Some materials were permanent, some were flammable, and some were precious.  It is the test of time that proves what will last of the edifice but the foundation remains.  Shoddy building gets punished. 

Paul was offering images of the unity of the community, its history and his place in it to get the Corinthian church past the factionalism that was tearing it apart.  There were issues about what was required to be a member of the community and a disciple of Christ.  There were issues about people claiming higher learning and higher authority, lording it over others, and not wishing to share with the poorer and less fortunate.  So St. Paul says “you”-- all of you -- are a temple of God, and the Spirit “dwells in you” united together.  You cannot walk away with your piece of the Spirit.  If anyone destroys the temple, God will destroy them.  You are the Temple of God and you together are holy.   All this factionalism had its source in human pride and vanity, whereas humility was needed.  Real wisdom is from God which cannot be understood in human terms and is unobtainable for those who are full of themselves and their own importance.  It is the community, which is the Temple, and the Temple is the body of Christ that possesses all things, which means it belongs only to Christ and Christ belongs solely to God.

We are not the Christian Community at Corinth; we are more like the one at Philippi, who never gave St. Paul a problem.  The message of St. Paul today still holds.  We are the Temple of God in which the Holy Spirit dwells.  We should be constantly building up the peace and love of our community, growing closer, so that it a fitting place of worship.  I am not talking about the walls and roof of our church building, but that real holiness exists in us together. Our Faith teaches us that we receive the Holy Spirit in our baptism.  St. Paul reminds us today that God the Father continues to send his divine Spirit into Temples such as this so that together with that Spirit and his Son, we can understand the divine love that surrounds us and never leaves us.

So the question I raised at the beginning is not quite right.  It should be “Are we a temple of the Holy Spirit” I need to relearn the teaching and it is about time.  My little brother and sister have grown up.  I think I am ready to see the Holy Spirit dwelling within them and just as important that the Spirit dwells between us.    Who knows?  When I am finished with them, maybe I will start thinking about the older siblings in the same way.