Your Body is God’s Temple

I smoked for a number of years.  I can remember a woman irritating me when she said in a critical way, “Father do you realize that your body id the temple of the Holy Spirit?”  I immediately responded, “Have you never heard of the incense in the temple?”  Perhaps it was a witty response, but the woman was right.  Our bodies are God’s dwelling place rather than our own private possession, as pro-choice advocates maintain.  As St Paul said, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?”  1 Cor 3:16.

That conscious realization has two implications.  Firstly, in this age of obesity, we need to look after our bodies by not doing things that injure their health such as smoking, drinking too much, eating junk food, doing drugs, and avoiding exercise.  Secondly, we have to avoid desecrating the temple of our own body or the body of another by means of sinful sexual activities.  When we respect our bodies as temples of the Lord, we do what St Paul advised:  “Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God, your spiritual worship.”  Rm 12:1.

Fr. Pat Collins, C.M.