Temples of the Spirit

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

The body as a temple of the Spirit is a rich image, and through the centuries has been illustrated in many different ways. One example is this bit of wisdom from St. Caesarius of Arles, included in the Office of Readings for yesterday’s Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica:

Whenever we come to church, we must prepare our hearts to be as beautiful as we expect this church to be. Do you wish to find this basilica immaculately clean? Then do not soil your soul with the filth of sins. Do you wish this basilica to be full of light? God too wishes that your soul be not in darkness, but that the light of good works shine in us, so that he who dwells in the heavens will be glorified. Just as you enter this church building, so God wishes to enter into your soul, for he promised: I shall live in them, and I shall walk the corridors of their hearts.

Yet there is a drawback to the image of our bodies as temples of the Spirit, one that Jesus’ use of the word “temple” in relation to his own body puts in proper perspective.

When we use the word “temple” we often think of a building made by human hands, something that is replaceable. A congregation can tear down their sanctuary and build another; its building can be destroyed by forces of nature and replaced with a new structure. In these instances it is the same congregation, but with a different physical temple, which can come and go. The congregation is not dependent on its physical structure for its identity.

Not so with us. God created each of us as the unity of a unique body and a unique soul, inseparable from each other. I cannot be the person God made me to be without this unity of my body and my soul . The Catechism of the Catholic Church goes so far as to say that “spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures united, but rather their union forms a single nature.” (#365)

It is the bodies we live in now that will be resurrected and glorified on the last day, “the resurrection of the body” we profess in the Apostles’ Creed. As such our bodies are not temporary structures that can or will be replaced, but permanent temples destined for resurrected glory with our souls.

He’ll transform our lowly bodies so that they’ll have the same form as his glorious body, by means of the power that enables him to subject everything to himself. (Philippians 3:20-21)

Jesus speaks of his own body as a temple that will be rebuilt--not replaced--three days after its destruction. (John 2:19) The same destiny awaits the temples of our bodies, for Jesus will do the same for them. Thus everything we do with our bodies has implications for how we will live in their resurrected versions in heaven.

Athletics can be a great way to glorify God, employing our earthly temples in anticipation of their resurrection, when we approach them in the right spirit. As St. John Paul II noted;

“The Church looks at sport with great sympathy, since it considers the human body as the masterpiece of creation. God the Creator gave new life to the body, thus making it the instrument of an immortal soul. Man became a living being; moreover, redemption by Christ turned the human body into a temple of the Holy Spirit, thus making man a member of the Christ destined to be resurrected from his own ashes to live in eternity thereafter. When sport is practiced in a healthy way, it exalts the dignity of the human body without risking idolatry. The Church sees sport as a mighty element of moral and social education.”