2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, B January 14, 2024
Fr. Alexander Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
“Why would the all-powerful God be so worried about what people do in their bedroom?” Critics of the Church’s teaching on sexuality love to ask that kind of question. They want to imply or even explicitly say that the Church is too obsessed with sex and that, to God, it’s not really a big deal. “Do what you want! Your sex life isn’t important enough for him to notice!”
We have an answer, though. It’s meant as a rhetorical question or a lazy criticism, but we can tell you why God cares about what people do in their bedroom. It’s because that’s where he lives. Contrary to the rather depressing idea that God is so infinitely distant from us that he couldn’t care less, the truth is that God is far closer than we understand. He is indeed all-powerful and infinite, but he also lives in each of us, made in his image. And whatever we do in our bedrooms – or anywhere else for that matter – we do in his home.
That’s what St. Paul is getting at in the 2nd reading. Our translation unhelpfully uses the word “immorality” and leaves out the more obvious verses, which kinda makes the reading sound like it describes all sin. But it’s much more specific in the original language: it’s not just general immorality, but sexual immorality, perversion. The Greek word is porneia and you can probably tell which English word comes from that.
So, yeah, the Church does talk about below-the-belt issues, but that’s because St. Paul talks about them. He talks about them because Jesus talks about them. At first glance, this topic might not seem to line up with the Gospel from today, but I promise you that it’s connected. Really, all truth is connected because Jesus is the truth. This particular connection is not even that hard to spot.
Why does St. Paul focus in on perversion? Because the “immoral person sins against his own body.” Again, so what? Why does the immortal, all-powerful, infinite creator of the Universe care what I do to my mortal, broken, imperfect body? Our bodies all turn to dust eventually anyway, so why would he care? The answer is right here: “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you…. You are not your own… you have been purchased at a price.”
This is especially true of anyone who has been baptized, but even the unbaptized are made in God’s image. Just look at the Name, Image and Likeness policy recently introduced to College football. Why should a college athlete destined for NFL fame and access to the most elite sectors of society care about what some cartoonist or advertiser does with some picture? Because it’s his likeness! Whatever your opinion on the actual policy, the fact that it involves so much money and controversy is a clear sign that it’s normal for a person to care what happens to their likeness. For God, who is three divine persons, that concern… that love of his likeness is infinitely more valuable.
God lives in your body so of course he cares what you do! We are not gnostics. We are not dualists. The body is good. The body is part of what makes us human. Jesus took on a body so he could die for us. He kept that body when he rose from the dead. He brought his body into heaven. Your body is not a prison! Your body is not a tool or a toy. It is part of what makes you, you. And, even though God is infinitely beyond you, because he loves you, he cares what happens to your body.
That applies just as much to an innocent 8 year old child as to a conflicted teenager as to a married couple as to a retired widower. In every stage we are called to a life of loving service in and through our bodies. Just as an athlete has to be pretty hard on his body in order to get it into shape, so we have to be pretty hard on our bodies to make them more spiritual. We aren’t escaping our bodies, but transforming them.
When Mother Teresa or John Paul II walked into a room, the room changed. Their bodies made God present because they spent their whole lives using their bodies to love and serve God and neighbor. This is part of the reason Jesus gave us the Eucharist and the Mass! Yes, he is always present to us spiritually, but in the Eucharist he becomes bodily present because we need a body in order to love and be loved. His presence is hidden behind the appearance of bead and wine, but that’s still a lot more bodily than empty air, isn’t it?
This is what is going on in the first reading and the gospel. The call of Samuel, of Andrew and Simon Peter are all connected to God’s presence. Samuel is sleeping by the ark of the covenant, the physical manifestation of God’s presence in the Old Testament. It wasn’t quite a body, but it was still quite tangible. God can – and often does – speak to people silently in their hearts and minds. But this passage goes out of it’s way to connect Samuel’s call to a physical location and a voice so tangible that he thinks it’s Eli calling him from the other room.
Andrew “beholds” the lamb of God as John tells him to. When Jesus notices him, what is the first thing Andrew asks for? “Where are you staying?” Andrew wants to know where Jesus lives, where he dwells. And when he goes to get Simon, he doesn’t just describe Jesus, he brings him to Jesus. If you read the gospels and the Acts of the Apostles and pay attention to the emphasis on bodies, dwelling places, and presence, you’ll see it’s a golden thread all the way through. The Good News isn’t just that God loves you, it’s that he is here. Where? Yes, the tabernacle, but also in your body… if you don’t defile your body with the kinds of sins that make him impossible to see.
Glorify God in your body by pursuing chastity, seeking forgiveness, and correcting whatever is disordered in your relationships. Glorify him by putting your body in his presence willingly and frequently. Glorify him by not just telling people about God, but bringing them to him. God did not become man to give us a book and some ideas. He became man so he could dwell with us bodily. That is why we have the Eucharist, why we have the Church, why we have buildings, why we have bodies, and why we care so much about what we do with those bodies. Healthy or not, beautiful or not, your body is the home God desires. And for many people, what you do with that body is the only witness to God they’ll ever see. “Therefore glorify God in your body.”