Homily for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time: January 14, 2009

Given by the Most Reverend Stephen E. Blaire at the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Stockton.

Two weeks ago we completed the Christmas Season when we celebrated the “Word Made Flesh.” God has entered into our humanity by taking upon Himself a body in the person of Jesus. Christianity is a religion of the body. We live in our bodies and through our bodies for God. We can say that we are our bodies. When I look upon your face, the face of your body, I see you.

Paul in his Letter to the Corinthians warns us that the body is not for immorality. To expand upon this statement I would like to lift up three of God’s commandments that will help us to be faithful to the use of the body for the glory of God. The first of these commandments says that you shall not have any strange gods before the true God. It is very easy to make the body into an idol, pampering the body as a god and paying so much attention to the body that body worship takes over in place of the true God. The fifth commandment, “You shall not kill,” must be understood as not harming the body. When you injure the body you injure the person. This is why the Church places such great respect upon the body from the first moment of its conception. To abuse the body, to torture the body, to market the body in the sex trade, to devalue the body when it loses its beauty as it ages or is damaged, is to disrespect the person by harming the person’s body. The sixth commandment implies that we should never use the body to satisfy drives for lust which seek only self indulgence at the expenses or use of the other. Overexposure in dress, in sexualized images, and in pornography demeans the dignity of the body and reduces the person to an object of lust.

In our bodies we live for God. In our bodies we are members of Christ’s body. God dwells in our bodies so that we can say that we are temples of the Holy Spirit.

Christ rose in his body as a promise that we shall be raised up in our bodies on the last day. Our bodies which are now corruptible will become incorruptible. Our bodies which now are mortal will become immortal. We will have to render an account to God as to how we have lived in our bodies in this life and how we have loved one another as Christ has loved us. The words of St. Paul are excellent words for us: GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR BODY. In your body live for God and for the good of one another.

Last Update January 20, 2009