SECOND SUNDAY OF YEAR "B"

SECOND SUNDAY OF YEAR

Cycle B:1 Cor 6, 13 15:  THE BODY

Introduction:     We have a duty to bear witness to Christian morality by our exemplary lives. There are times when we Christians are not the holy people that God expects. We have scandalised others by our petty quarrels and immoral lives. We may well have scared people away from Jesus. Let us ask pardon for this.

The Homily: I would like to comment on the 2nd. reading of today. It’s about the human body. The Corinthians argued that you can eat what you want, “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food.” So, they said, you can have sex with anyone you want, because the body was made for sex as well as for food. However, St. Paul has far more reverence for the body than this. He reflects that we are members of Christ’s body, and that our bodies are his. We are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6,19) and the temple of the living God (2 Cor 6,16). Can you imagine – the Holy Spirit making use of your body as if it were a church ? Can you imagine it? Just think of it. Your body is a church in which God is pleased to dwell. This is the way to glorify God in our bodies.

When we die, our bodies are prepared for burial. The body is not a piece of outworn clothing, which has been cast so that the soul can be free. The body is much more than that for a Christian. There is nothing that befalls the soul in which the body does not take part. We receive impressions of this world, but also of the divine world partly through the body. Every sacrament is a gift of God, conferred on the soul by means of physical actions: the waters of baptism, the oil of chrism, the bread and wine of communion are all taken from the material world. We can do neither good nor evil except in conjunction with our body. From the first day to the last, the body has been a co-worker of the soul in all things, and is, together with the soul, the total man.  The body remains marked, as it were, forever by the imprint of the soul and the common life body and soul had together. Linked with the soul, the body is also linked through the sacraments to Jesus Christ himself.

I’d like to remind you that God worked out our salvation in the body of Christ. The body of Jesus is very really the physical material out of which God fashioned our salvation; and we would do well to unite our bodies to his in order to allow his salvation to flow into us. More than that.  Think of all the skills and excellences you have acquired through the use of your body and all the labour that they entailed. Will all that be exposed to futility and waste at the time of death ?  Certainly not !  Our body may be made of dust, but it is star dust. God will never allow our body to be junked.

The Resurrection of Christ tells us that our bodies are pointing in a special direction, an eternal consummation in God.  The idea of consummation makes you think of marriage. Quite correct. The eternal consummation we look forward to is the Marriage Feast of the Lamb; the very same Lamb pointed out by John Baptist in today’s Gospel.

            Without physical life, there can be no well-being and development.  God has fashioned the human being in such a way that when all the components work in harmony, we enjoy good health and happiness.  The body is meant to work, but also meant for enjoyment, appropriate pleasure, to be touched and held, caressed, celebrated and surrendered.  And yet there is something mysterious about the body.  You have your body and yet you don’t. If I asked you, “Are you your body?” you’ll probably answer “Yes, and No.” There’s something more, something that you can’t quite explain.  You are your body and yet you’re not.  Here is a mystery calling for reverence for the unknown and proper use of the known; calling for appreciation and not exploitation.

            You can glorify God in your body, praying God to take possession of it like a temple. So your body can become a sacrifice acceptable to God, taking care to respect our bodies and other peoples’.  We can never treat another body merely as a sexual object.  The body is for the Lord, ultimately.  But St. Paul goes on to say: “...and the Lord is for the body.”  The Lord is for the body.  Since the birth of Christ, God has a body like ours, affirming and healing our bodies and so preparing them for heaven.

PRAYER  (Janet Morley)

O God, satisfy the hunger of our bodies for food and shelter, health and human touch.  Satisfy the hunger of our spirits for dignity and freedom. Satisfy the hunger of our minds to understand our world, the reasons for the pain, the ways we are connected to each other.  Satisfy the hunger of our hearts that all who share the earth with us shall share our satisfaction.  And satisfy the hunger of our hands to help you make it so through Jesus Christ.