Daily Reflections Feb 6, 2018

1Kings 8: 22 - 23 & 27 - 30, Mark 7: 1 - 13

“I offer my hands for thy service. Let my soul receive thy commands and my mind understand thy wisdom. Grant that the service of my hands may provide for thy worship in this temple, which is my body. And may thy Holy Spirit continue to abide within me, to guide me and teach me mercy towards all mankind”.

The Book of 1 Kings 8: 22 - 23 & 27 - 30 describes the moments when King Solomon dedicated the Temple of stone that he built in Jerusalem for the worship of His father’s God. It was indeed a marvelous architectural monument and in those days, would become the envy of all the neighboring kingdoms around the nation of Israel. King Solomon understood, the greatness of God, he understood His might and he understood His love for the people of Israel. King Solomon understood that our great and Almighty God could not be contained in the highest heavens and this Temple of Stone was too small for his greatness.Then, King Solomon testifies to God’s faithfulness to the Covenant made with Abraham, Moses and King David and he humbly invokes God’s mercy upon His people’s supplication. Our body is also the Temple of the living God and his Holy Spirit abides in us to teach, guide, protect and maintain a purity of heart. Our body is a vehicle through which God tests our Soul through human life to prepare us and make us worthy of the Heavenly reward. Our bodies are but dust and scientifically essentially made up of organic carbon compounds. Yet, out of His abundant love and mercy, God makes our bodies worthy of being temples for His worship and His divine abode. Our holy and righteous intentions, our righteous actions and our prayers form part of our worship of the living God present within us. And through His presence in us, we are able to perceive good from evil and inculcate God’s compassionate mercy towards those around us.

From the time of Adam and even today, the Lord’s commands and His teachings have remained the same. But as the human evolved developing in the midst of civilization, people thwarted God’s commands to suit their need and even the Jews corrupted His Holy Laws. The Pharisees manipulated the law to suit their needs and turned the entire Jewish nation under their leadership into a band of hypocrites. They held on to their positions of power by appeasing to the needless necessities of the rich and powerful among their people. As Jesus Christ reminds the Pharisees and the Jewish people in the Gospel of Mark7: 1 - 13 about the prophecy of Isaiah, He lays down to bare their hypocrisy and their sin. Jesus tries to make them understand the requirement of keeping their souls pure from the malignancy and evil of Sin. Jesus tries to make them understand the necessity of maintaining a pure heart, a clear conscience and to practice the holy attributes of God’s Commandments.Through the recording of Jesus’ words by the apostles and the promulgation of the same by the Church, Jesus continues to preach that God continues to abide within the temple of our body through His Son as we live and partake in the Holy Eucharist. Jesus continues to teach us that our Great and Marvellous God is pleased to live in our pure hearts and inspire us through our holy intentions. Jesus continues to teach us that our awesome God and His Divine Son are pleased to abide in us and be worshiped in Spirit and Truth.

God knows the value of our body borne out of the flesh. Jesus has declared our bodies to be the Temple of God’s Spirit. Yet, through the Church established by Jesus Christ through His twelve apostles, God in Communion with Christ will continue to preach the necessity of righteousness, compassion and mercy, whose practice is possible only by spiritually understanding God’s Commandments and practicing the same in sincerity and Truth.