Day 47. Wise Builders
Indeed it is through chastity that we are gathered together and led back to the unity from which we were fragmented into multiplicity.
St. Augustine, Confessions
From the start of this second semester we’ve been considering two seemingly disconnected themes: the temple and relationships. On the one side there is a building made of stone, while on the other there is intimacy, companionship, sexuality and the human body. In this reflection, I’d like to summarize what we’ve covered and draw the two themes closer together.
We began with a broad look at the state of our culture today. Western civilization, in many ways, has been dismantled, deconstructed and left in ruins. We observed that there are no longer commonly shared ground rules for human relationships. This loss has led to an overall experience of loneliness, disconnectedness, and isolation among people. Individualism in particular has left us all in personal exile where intimacy seems out of reach. Sex, we mistakenly assume, is the only escape.
We also considered the mall. It’s a building that offers a shop for every customer, a niche to cater to every taste and style. In our individualized, disconnected culture, this is the model we may use as we organize our relationships. But malls become walls when someone violates the inner sanctuaries of our soul. The ideal of “openness” becomes a sham when a once trusted friend becomes a violator of our most personal spaces.
Yesterday we concluded with a note on the lost virtue of chastity. I compared the reclamation of this virtue with the rebuilding of the temple. This isn’t my original thought. It is St. Paul who first draws a strong link between chastity and virtue on the one hand, and the building of a temple on the other. Clearly Paul considers this an important connection as a closer look at his first letter to the Corinthians makes clear.
Early in the letter Paul addresses the problem of factions in the Corinthian community. Groups were claiming allegiance to various teachers and preachers in the Church. There was much confusion and discord. Paul uses the analogy of a building to express to his flock that the Christian life isn’t about which human teacher you follow, but about what foundation you choose (Christ) and what materials you build with (charity, virtue, goodness, unity). God’s judgment (“the Day”) will make clear who has built best. Note that as Paul brings the analogy to a conclusion, he specifies the particular building he has in mind. You can already guess what it will be. Here’s the text:
…Each one must be careful how he builds… for no one can lay a foundation other than the one that is there, namely, Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, the work of each will come to light, for the Day will disclose it. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire (itself) will test the quality of each one's work. If the work stands that someone built upon the foundation, that person will receive a wage. But if someone's work is burned up, that one will suffer loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.
1 Cor. 3:10-17
Yes, the structure Paul has in mind is a temple. Our lives are built as a holy dwelling on the foundation of Christ with the materials of “gold, silver, precious stones,” or, if we choose less wisely, “wood, hay or straw.” Hopefully, this sounds familiar. In the last section, Part 2 of the Novena, we examined the foundations of our Table of Self-Knowledge to see if they were grounded on Christ. Now we step back to see a bigger picture. Not only our identity but also our relationships must be founded on Jesus. Our altar of self-knowledge has found its place in the larger context of the temple of our relationships, and St. Paul has important advice for us: be wise builders.
The subject of temples and relationships comes up again in the same letter. This time, the issue is more directly related to our lost virtue of chastity. Corinth was a very worldly city. Its social patterns revolved around schools of philosophy, the sports arena, and temples of prostitution – school, sports and sex. Not unlike the modern college campus. Many objected to the rigidity of the new Christian faith regarding sex. “Why be so narrow?” they asked, “Sex is as natural as eating and drinking.” Actually, that’s a paraphrase. What they really said was, “food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food.” (Loses something in translation, doesn’t it?) Let’s see how St. Paul responds.
Food for the stomach and the stomach for food,” (they say) but God will do away with both the one and the other. The body, however, is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body; God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. [Our note: remember Jesus saying, “Destroy this temple…”?] Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take Christ's members and make them the members of a prostitute? Of course not! (Or) do you not know that anyone who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For “the two,” it says, “will become one flesh.” But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Avoid immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the immoral person sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.
1 Cor. 6:13-20
We’ll return to this passage tomorrow. Meanwhile, go back and review both passages above and count the number of times Paul says, “Do you not know?” or “Don’t you know?” Write them in your journal and number them so that we can examine them in greater detail.
Novena Prayer
Jesus says: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
Pier Giorgio responds: What wealth it is to be in good health, as we are! But we have the duty of putting our health at the service of those who do not have it. To act otherwise would be to betray that gift of God.
Let us pray: Blessed Pier Giorgio, help me to seek God’s righteousness, His plan for my life and for the salvation of the world. Show me the way to self-surrender, so that I may desire nothing more than to be of service to the Lord and His Kingdom. Lead me to the table of love, where I will be satisfied.
Blessed Pier Giorgio, I ask for your intercession in obtaining from God, Who is righteous and just, all the graces necessary for my spiritual and temporal welfare. I confidently turn to you for help in my present need: (in your own words, ask for the Lord to give you greater charity in all of your relationships and to purify them from all self-interest).
A Book of Prayers in Honor of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, by Rev. Timothy E. Deeter
Make it My Own
Daily Discernment Workbook
WORLD VIEWS
1. Food is for the Body
Things haven’t changed much since Corinth. Then as now, people make excuses for their lack of sexual self-control. Sadly we often get suckered by these excuses. Even if we don’t use them ourselves we are passive when our friends do. Understanding what the message is behind the excuse might help. Can you connect the common excuse below (left column) with what is likely the real meaning of what’s being said (right column) by drawing lines between them?
2. Feeling the Pressure.
Our culture is so caught up in sex that friends think it’s weird if we’re not having any. Virginity is more shameful today than having an STD. When people push me on my convictions, how can I apply what I’ve learned about the body to the way I explain myself? The following “Pushes” are followed by a suggested “Pushback.” If I rewrite the reply in my own words, I’ll feel more confident answering these challenges (or helping my friends answer them) in the future.
The Push: Sex is natural. No sex? That’s unnatural.
My Pushback: Sex is natural, but life is natural too. And the natural purpose for sex is new life. I’ll wait on my ‘natural’ desire for sex until I’m ready to care for a family.
In my own words…
The Push: You need to loosen up about sex. You’ll never find love unless you play the field a little.
My Pushback: Having sex isn’t going to help anybody find the right one. If love is blind, then sex before marriage is the blinder. If I’m looking to get married, I’ll focus on being a good person so I can meet a good person – somebody who likes me for who I am, not for the ‘great sex’ we’re supposedly having.
In my own words…
The Push: If you really love me, then you should have sex with me.
My Pushback: Sex says something important. I wouldn’t want to say something with my body that I’m not ready to say to you with my whole life.
In my own words…
SAINTS SAID IT
3. Saints Struggled Too!
It’s easy to get discouraged when I think about the fight to stay pure. I’m not alone. Many saints – in fact, some of the most famous – had their own difficulties with purity. Among these are St. Francis of Assisi, St. Margaret of Cortona, and most notably, St. Augustine of Hippo who once prayed, “O Lord, make me chaste…but not yet.” For all these saints, Christ did in them what mere human effort could not accomplish. He took away the attachment to sin by filling their hearts with his presence. Read and reflect on the way Augustine describes this powerful deliverance.
How lovely I suddenly found it to be free from the loveliness of those vanities, so that now it was a joy to renounce what I had been so afraid to lose. For You cast them out of me, O true and supreme Loveliness, You cast them out of me and took their place in me, You who are sweeter than all pleasure, yet not to flesh and blood; brighter than all light, yet deeper within than any secret; loftier than all honor, but not to those who are lofty to themselves. Now my mind was free from the cares that had gnawed it, from aspiring and getting and weltering in filth and rubbing the scab of lust. And I talked with You as friends talk, my glory and my riches and my salvation, my Lord God.
Confessions, IX-1
My thoughts…
Conclude with
“Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be.
World without end, Amen.”
[0] lead quote - St. Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, X, 29, cited in the Catechism of the Catholic Church #2340
[1] St. Augustine, Confessions IX, 1, cited in The Courage to Be Chaste, by Benedict J. Groeschel, O.F.M. Cap., New York, Paulist Press, 1985, p. 99
[2] All Scripture quotes from the New American Bible, unless otherwise specified
+ + +
Answer key to #1 : A3; B4; C2; D1