BUILDING A SPIRITUAL HOUSE

[1]When we were living in Hawaii, my next-door neighbor came over one day and told me of a pile of discarded wood on the Air Force base. He said the wood looked good enough to be used for building material if I needed any. I drove over and checked it out. Sure enough, there was enough discarded wood that I was able to build a play house for our kids. The play house wasn’t much to look at, but it was sturdy and became a magnet for other neighborhood kids. I built the playhouse four feet off the ground next to a tree in the backyard; I even put a rope off one side for them to swing off. One day, I looked out to the backyard and counted ten kids on the playhouse, none of them were ours![2]

If you want to build a house that lasts, that attracts others, then you need to focus on the quality of the materials you use. Paul tells us, “You are God’s building.” (1 Cor 3:9) Peter also wrote in his first letter, that we are like “living stones… being built up as a spiritual house.” (1 Pt 2:5) While the great Lateran Basilica is the oldest public church in the west and ranks first among the four Major Basilicas of Rome, it is built of stone, mortar, and wood. Our “spiritual house” is being built with different materials – “living stones”.

Let’s use our imaginations, what if an earthquake reduced the Basilica to rubble? Would not the Church still exist, would its members still be sent to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with the entire human family?

What kind of building materials are we giving God to build with? If we give God attitude and disobedience, or dualistic behaviors, He wouldn’t have much quality to work with. If we give God a willing heart and enthusiasm to serve, the quality of the material is better. If we were to spend time in God’s Word, in prayer, and in allowing the Holy Spirit to transform our very being, then God would have the highest quality of material to use in building us into a “spiritual house” that draws others to know, love, and serve Him.

Each of us was baptized, not into some exclusive club, but into the living Body of Christ. Our responsibility to share the Good News always exceeds our rights as baptized Catholics. As we gather here today, in St. James Cathedral, the seat of the Bishop of Orlando, to reaffirm our Baptism, to be nourished by the Scriptures, and the Body and Blood of Jesus. It’s through us; others are drawn to and encounter the living Christ.

May today’s feast help us to realize that each one of us is a “living stone” of the Church, the “spiritual house”. To be the best quality of building material, for the Master Builder, we need to open our hearts more widely and live more fully in the life-giving waters of our Baptism that flows from the perched side of our risen Lord, the one foundation that we continue to build upon.

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[1] Scripture (NABRE), Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12; 1 Cor 3:9c-11, 16-17; John 2:13-22.

[2] Bethelvandalia.org, Building Materials for God, posted February 22, 2019.