With Ash Wednesday coming up this week, today’s second reading is the last time we will read sequentially from 1 Corinthians. When Ordinary Time resumes on June 21, we will begin reading from Romans. Since we’ve spent that last six weeks reading 1 Corinthians, it would be worthwhile to read the rest of the letter on your own.
Our reading this week is at the tail end of one of Saint Paul’s many building metaphors. He’s just told us that the only foundation we can build on is Jesus Christ, not on Apollos or Cephas or Paul or Bishop Barron or Cardinal Burke. And each of us should take care how we build on that foundation. Careful builders will receive a heavenly reward, careless builders will pass through purging fires on their way to salvation, and destructive builders will be destroyed themselves. And just what are we building in this metaphor? We build a suitable dwelling place for God, a temple in our own hearts and minds and homes.
This is where the metaphor ends and becomes simply truth. In Baptism, the Holy Trinity takes up residence in our souls. After Baptism, we build ourselves into a suitable dwelling place for the Trinity by living a holy life. When King David sought to build the first Temple in Jerusalem, he was prompted to do so by the state of God’s dwelling at the time: “Here I am living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God dwells in a tent!” (2 Samuel 6:2). Many times I could likewise have said, “Here I am living in my nice house while God has to live in me!”
And therein lies the challenge. What kind of dwelling place for God are you? Have you built up sturdy walls or are you a tent blowing in the wind? Is your paint starting to peel or have you recently given it a fresh coat? Is your roof intact or is it starting to leak? We adorn our churches with nothing but the best for the Lord of the Universe, but how do we adorn our hearts and homes? He dwells there too.
As Lent approaches let’s all make plans to improve God’s dwelling that is me. Let’s get back to basics, to the foundation, to Jesus Christ himself.