THE TEMPLE WITHIN

FEAST OF DEDICATION OF THE LATERAN BASILICA

Ezek 47:1-2,8-9,12; Ps 46:2-3,5-6,8-9; 1 Cor 3:9-11,16-17; Jn 2:13-22

Destroy this Temple of God

The construction of temples for different gods people worship is a human tradition that can be traced to the very beginning. In other words, building temples for God is something inherent or innate in human beings themselves. The reason for this is clear from the story of creation. We continually return to the creation story to understand God's will for us. The depth and layers of the book of Genesis on creation make us consider it a deeply theological and mystical writing. God’s expression of intention to make man in his image and likeness already gives us a foundation for understanding that the idea of a temple for God is innate in man. Image and likeness both denote the idea of indwelling. The image of God will have to be in man for him to image God; and to be like God, we must have the form of God dwelling and operative in us. The word of God confirms that man and woman were made in the image of God. Their failure to cooperate or follow God’s word prevented God from dwelling inside them in the manner God planned. The Eternal Word of God and the Holy Spirit were to make their residence in the man and woman by their loving obedience to the word of God. Disobedience prevented God from dwelling in the temple He had completed in man when he made them in his image. The evil one desired and coveted the temple and lured man and woman to disobedience.

Subsequent to the foregoing understanding, we can sum that the idea or practice of the construction of an external temple developed from man’s inability to access the interior temple of God. The ejection of man and woman from the garden of Eden is a symbol of the barring of man from the interior temple without the Word of God. The inaccessible temple within us still echoes in our being and actions because it is an inherent part of our constitution. To substitute for the missing religious component within our constitution, we constructed external temples for different gods we made for ourselves and worship. God’s redemptive plan had to adopt the external temple as a religious practice, for it is rooted in our nature as He made us. Thus, Abraham was encouraged to build altars for God and interacted with God through external acts of worship. God initiated the construction of the external structure to enable His encounters with His people. When He delivered Israel from Egypt, He gave Moses the design for the Tent of Meeting. The practice evolved into the idea of the Temple in Jerusalem through David, a key figure in the construction of a Temple and a House for God. These two important salvific concepts gradually came together in the mystical re-conception of Israel as the people of God.

The prophet, Ezekiel, even before the Son of Man, prophesies about the mystical reconstruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Though he was prophesying about the physical reconstruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, the mystical note and image are evident. “The angel brought me to the entrance of the Temple, where a stream came out from under the Temple threshold and flowed eastwards, since the Temple faced east. The water flowed from under the right side of the Temple, south of the altar.” The real Temple of God is within us, with our spirit, representing the Son of Man born within us through the Holy Spirit, as the altar. The Son of Man, the Word of God Incarnate, is the altar of sacrifice to God. The Holy Spirit flows from the sacrifice of the Son to us, for our sanctification. “This water flows east down to the Arabah and to the sea; and flowing into the sea, it makes its waters wholesome. Wherever the river flows, all living creatures teeming in it will live. Fish will be very plentiful, for wherever the water goes it brings health, and life teems wherever the river flows.” This expresses the spiritual and natural lives of the redeemed.

The prophecy reveals the messianic age ushered in by the incarnation of the Son of God. His restoration of our spiritual life brings about the flourishing of our natural life. The psalmist sings of this restoration. “The waters of a river give joy to God’s city, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within, it cannot be shaken; God will help it at the dawning of the day.” Saint Paul confirms that the gist is about us, for we are the temple of God. “You are God’s building. By the grace God gave me, I succeeded as an architect and laid the foundations, on which someone else is doing the building. Everyone doing the building must work carefully. For the foundation, nobody can lay any other than the one which has already been laid, that is Jesus Christ.” The foundation of the mystical City or Temple of God is the Son of Man. We all become a mystical part of that Temple by our profession of faith and acceptance of his death in our baptism. We are born in Him, and He is born in us as our new spirit, which must grow into Him by a continuous eating of Him, our heavenly bread. Hence, we are individually His Temple. “Didn’t you realise that you were God’s temple and that the Spirit of God was living among you? If anybody should destroy the temple of God, God will destroy him, because the temple of God is sacred; and you are that temple.”

How do we destroy God’s temple? And how does God destroy us? It is as we noted above, when we refuse to listen to the word of God and obey, we cease to cooperate with God for his worship in the temple that we are. The cessation of true worship within us makes us useless for the purpose God created us. The Lord will therefore treat us as useless if we consistently destroy and thwart his plan for us. He demonstrated his unhappiness with those trading in the Temple. “Just before the Jewish Passover Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and in the Temple he found people selling cattle and sheep and pigeons, and the money changers sitting at their counters there. Making a whip out of some cord, he drove them all out of the Temple, cattle and sheep as well, scattered the money changers’ coins, knocked their tables over and said to the pigeon-sellers, ‘Take all this out of here and stop turning my Father’s house into a market.’” It was a symbolic action, but full of both physical and spiritual meaning. It is the House of God, and the Son of Man is the High Priest of the Temple. He leads us in the true and spiritual worship of God within us, in the Church, and in the spiritual Temple of the heavenly Jerusalem. Let us offer Him our loving and faithful obedience.

Let us pray: O God, who from living and chosen stones prepare an eternal dwelling for your majesty, increase in your Church the spirit of grace you have bestowed, so that by new growth your faithful people may build up the heavenly Jerusalem. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.