Thursday, March 12, 2009

Today’s text

John 2:18-21

The Jews intervened and said, 'What sign can you show us that you should act like this?' Jesus answered, 'Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' The Jews replied, 'It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple: are you going to raise it up again in three days?' But he was speaking of the Temple that was his body.

Reflection

And here is the change Jesus brings. No more is relationship with God one more version of let’s make a deal. No more do we engage in the commerce of something for something, giving to get.

Nor shall we imagine the Holy One is attached to any one place or people or activity, as if the Holy Mystery who is God can be nailed down or confined by human constraints, definitions and desires.

The mystery of God is known in the body of Jesus, dwelling there, being known, felt and see there. And if there, then in our bodies, too.

His human body is a temple, the place of God’s abiding, the point of divine meeting where we may encounter the One who infinitely transcends every body, but can be known in any and all of them.

Jesus body bore the eternal life who is God, a life that raised him up from the dead dust of the grave, all of him, his body, his whole person.

The Life he bore can not be destroyed, for the God who creates universes and human souls out of star dust can not be contained by a trifle like physical death.

It raises up all who bear this life. Their bodies (our bodies) are temples of divine dwelling, the dwelling of the Most High.

So there is always hope, always. And beauty can abound even in the most unlikely souls.

Pr. David L. Miller