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.
1 Cor 3:16-17
Jesus answered and said to them,
“Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”
John 2:19
One summer Sunday morning, perhaps 15 years ago, my pastor unlocked our parish church of Saint Ann to prepare for the day’s liturgies. To his surprise he found the tabernacle pulled out of its setting in the high altar. The tabernacle was empty, having been forced open and ransacked.
Our congregation arrived some time later for mass, and we discovered the news for ourselves. Our priest explained that we would still celebrate mass today, in this church, although special permission had been required from the bishop. Some weeks later, with the tabernacle repaired and restored to its place, my parish celebrated a rite of re-dedication. Our church had been desecrated by the crime that took place there, but the destruction of the temple is never the last word in the church.
Destruction and renewal form the pattern of our lives, weaving the loose threads of joys and sorrows into the tapestry of the paschal mystery.
Where there is destruction, there is soon to be renewal and re-creation.
Perhaps something in us, in the world, calls out for destruction. Structures of sin and prejudice, systems of violence, and cycles of every sort of viciousness, along with idols and false-gods. Destroy these false-temples, and God will destroy the false-self that built them.
Allow a single crack to form in the delicate edifice of sin, and the mere whisper of God’s voice will bring it tumbling down.
(Photo from dedication liturgy of Klášter Nový Dvůr, Cistercian abbey in the Czech Republic.)
