A sermon of St Caesarius of Arles
| Baptism makes every one of us into a temple of God. |
|---|
| Lateran Basilica |
My
fellow Christians, today is the birthday of this church, an occasion
for celebration and rejoicing. We, however, ought to be the true and
living temple of God. Nevertheless, Christians rightly commemorate this
feast of the church, their mother, for they know that through her they
were reborn in the spirit. At our first birth, we were vessels of God’s
wrath; reborn, we became vessels of his mercy. Our first birth brought
death to us, but our second restored us to life.
Indeed, before our baptism we were sanctuaries of the
devil; but after our baptism we merited the privilege of being temples
of Christ. And if we think more carefully about the meaning of our
salvation, we shall realise that we are indeed living and true temples
of God. God does not dwell only in things made by human hands,
nor in homes of wood and stone, but rather he dwells principally in the
soul made according to his own image and fashioned by his own hand.
Therefore, the apostle Paul says: The temple of God is holy, and you are that temple.
When Christ came, he banished the devil from our
hearts, in order to build in them a temple for himself. Let us therefore
do what we can with his help, so that our evil deeds will not deface
that temple. For whoever does evil, does injury to Christ. As I said
earlier, before Christ redeemed us, we were the house of the devil, but
afterward, we merited the privilege of being the house of God. God
himself in his loving mercy saw fit to make of us his own home. My
fellow Christians, do we wish to celebrate joyfully the birth of this
temple? Then let us not destroy the living temples of God in ourselves
by works of evil. I shall speak clearly, so that all can understand.
Whenever we come to church, we must prepare our hearts to be as
beautiful as we expect this church to be. Do you wish to find this
basilica immaculately clean? Then do not soil your soul with the filth
of sins. Do you wish this basilica to be full of light? God too wishes
that your soul be not in darkness, but that the light of good works
shine in us, so that he who dwells in the heavens will be glorified.
Just as you enter this church building, so God wishes to enter into your
soul, for he promised: I shall live in them, I shall walk through their hearts.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.