Love God. Live the Eucharist.

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Second Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B, January 18, 2015, by Fr. Kevin Anderson

If you had something very special, where would you keep it?  Would you put it in a special box? [show a fancy box]  Would you keep it under lock and key?  [show a Safe Box with a lock]  Would you bury it? [demonstrate digging a hole with a shovel]

 

Well, where do you think that God puts special things?  We know that God’s grace is in the sacraments.  For example in the Eucharist is the Body of Christ.  And we know that this box over here [tabernacle] holds that Body of Christ.  We know that God’s word is in the bible.  We know that many people feel God in nature.  But if God had something real where would God put it?

 

The answer can be found in the second reading . . . Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.  It describes God’s dwelling.  Paul says God’s dwelling is a temple.  Remember, that a temple is the Jewish notion of a Church.  Paul says that we are God’s temple.

 

Scripture scholar W. T Wright says if we understand this concept of Paul, (that the true temple is the human person) then we will understand ALL of Paul’s writings.  That each of us has an inherit dignity, not earned.   That help explain why Paul was so successful in his spreading the Good News . . . for he empowered all feel dignity, especially those who didn’t feel so good about their bodies, or their lives. 

 

We are the dwelling place of God.  That’s huge news.  It means that of all the places to find God . . . in the sacraments, the bible, the Vatican, nature . . . the most special place for God to be is IN YOU!

 

Think of that . . . that God choose you as the temple.  Part of the acceptance is to love yourself as much as God does.  Your hair, your weight, your wrinkles . . . it is all part of the package.  And God says, “Wow.”    That doesn’t mean that we need to copy anyone or try to look like someone else. Be yourself!  Because whenever you start comparing yourself  . . . you will always come up short.  That is, that will always be someone who is prettier, or thinner, or beefier or taller or whatever.  Accept how God has created you, for God says you are the temple that I choose to dwell in.

 

The other part of that acceptance is to try to keep your temple in good working order.  Just like we keep trying to improve this building (and the Church building at South); we are also invited to keep our bodies as healthy as we can.  We probably all know of ways that we can improve our bodies . . . drink more water, get more sleep, eat healthier foods.  It’s as if God would say, “I say the temple of your body, but let’s keep it working well.”

 

So how do we do that?  By taking things ONE DAY AT A TIME. Just like Jesus calls the disciples in the gospel, so we are also called.    But it doesn’t mean that we are called to do great things . . . like to fix world peace or cure cancer.  But we are called ONE DAY AT A TIME to be ourselves.  We don’t have to figure it all out.  Just take it one day at a time.  St. Francis de Sales, “Be who you are and be that well. “  Be yourself.  Nothing more.  Just you.

 

And that starts just ONE DAY AT A TIME.  So for today, right now . . .don’t worry, don’t obsess.  Just breathe and have faith that everything will work out for the best.

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