A too temporal temple

The psalmist in the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary for Canada today quotes the instruction to ‘‘Be still, and know that I am God!”. This attitude of stillness before the awesome is the experience of Elijah (1 Kings 19) of finding God in the still small voice. The passage from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel describes the living giving power of God which flows from the Temple. Water as the symbol of the restoration of life in relationship with God is deep in Judeo-Christian tradition. The Lateran Basilica was dedicated by Pope Sylvester I in 324. The Edict of Milan, proclaimed by Emperor Constantine in 313, permitted the establishment of the Church throughout the Roman Empire without opposition from the authorities. The Church may have been recipient, at that time, of the peace for which the psalmist today praises God. The Gospel of John relates the episode of Jesus cleansing the Temple in Jerusalem by casting out the commercial activity which was making it a den of thieves. The difficulty of hearing the still small voice and being washed in the waters of life in an environment too close to the culture of everyday life is obvious. Jesus proclaims the Temple of God to be within people. We can find the beauty, awe, peace, still voice and cleansing Spirit within ourselves. The bricks and mortar which we use to build places of peace, beauty and solitude are serving an important purpose to focus our stillness. Our affiliation of religious structure with the political, cultural and commercial structures of our time may be filling our holy place with the thieves of attractive human authority and power.