What is God’s temple?
Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome
Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12
The angel brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water flowing out from beneath the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the façade of the temple was toward the east; the water flowed down from the southern side of the temple, south of the altar. He led me outside by the north gate, and around to the outer gate facing the east, where I saw water trickling from the southern side. He said to me, “This water flows into the eastern district down upon the Arabah, and empties into the sea, the salt waters, which it makes fresh. 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.”
1 Corinthians 3:9C-11, 16-17
Brothers and sisters:
You are God's building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it. But each one must be careful how he builds upon it, for no one can lay a foundation other than the one that is there, namely, Jesus Christ.
Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.
John 2:13-22
Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money-changers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father's house a marketplace.” His disciples recalled the words of Scripture, Zeal for your house will consume me. At this the Jews answered and said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his Body. Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.
May Tam
Whereas Ezekiel, in the First Reading, gives us his vision of the temple with its physicality and beneficence, St. Paul, in the Second Reading, relates to us the temple in its spiritual sense. However, it is in the Gospel Reading that Jesus brings out the reality of what truly is God's temple which both the Jews and the disciples of Jesus would not have comprehended before His resurrection.
Not only did Jesus “identify Himself with the Temple by presenting Himself as God's definitive dwelling place among men” (CCC586), He replaced the temple sacrifices with His self immolation-- His own Eucharistic sacrifice--on the cross at Calvary. He ended the Old Testament prescriptions of worship with a new sacrifice that perpetuates space and time. In the past, Israel related to God through the temple, from now on, Christians relate to God through Jesus.
Understanding this, St. Paul expands it further by pointing out that we are God's temple in which God's spirit dwells. With Christ as the head, all Christians are members of His body, the Mystical Body of Christ that is the Church (cf. 1 Cor. 12:12-31; Col. 1:18, 24; 2:18-20; Eph. 1:22-23). Like what Ezekiel saw, the Church in its perceptible form, is visible as a building or an institution but more so, just as St. Paul says, “[we, the people] are God's building” (1 Cor. 3:9b). In whatever forms the Church takes, the quintessence is that it is holy because of the presence of God.
In His cleansing act of the temple, besides revealing His zeal for God's house, Jesus is also reminding us of the essential deep reverence we should have when we come to God's dwelling place. If the temple at Jerusalem, devoid of the Ark of the Covenant (the concrete symbol of God's presence, it was lost during the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 587 BC), demanded such a respect, how much more respect we are required to have when we come into a church where the presence of the living God is in the Eucharist? Let us also remind ourselves that we carry God's presence in us and therefore we should strive to live a life of holiness and virtues “for God's temple is holy, and [we] are that temple” (1 Cor. 3:17).
N.B. For further reference of the Mystical Body of Christ, please consult 1943 encyclical of Pope Pius XII Mystici Corporis Christi
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