Bodily Temples

A Reflection on the First Reading for September 15, 2019:
Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Exodus 32.7-11, 13-14

The Lord said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’”

The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.”

But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’”

And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

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Idols are what we choose before God.


Idols are simply anything we put before God in our lives. The idols of the ancient past were different from the idols we make for ourselves today. We do not bow down to molten calves but our individualistic Western culture idolizes money, power, pleasure, and material goods. In our ego driven and competitive secular environment the values of self-determination and self-reliance are encouraged. In addition, the accumulation of material goods is considered by many to be a sign of success. Christians, however, are called to a different standard because our fundamental values come from God. We make a conscious choice to make God the center of our lives and when we do this all other things around us are brought into harmony. In the reading God tells Moses, “Go down at once! YOUR people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely..." (Exodus: 7). The Israelites now belong to Moses as God no longer identifies with them because God cannot tolerate sin. We all know that God will never forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6) but He respects our choices and will not live within us if our souls are materially or spiritually skewed.

Resisting Idolatry
Personally if I do not pay attention to my interior life through Scripture reading, prayer, and journaling I move God to second place on my “to do” list.  Communally the gift of the Mass, the Blessed Sacrament, and Adoration are graces which allow the Holy Spirit to saturate us, penetrate us, nourish and strengthen us. In all these we pray not only for ourselves but also for each other. As Moses pleaded for his people, Jesus taught us to intercede for each other. The most supreme example of this is the Lord’s Prayer. In addition the story of Martha and Mary, (Luke 10:38-42) teaches us that Mary’s priority was to first to listen to Jesus before engaging in work. She grounded herself in God.

A Personal Experience of Idolatry
I have immense compassion for anyone who is affected by eating disorders because anorexia nervosa ravaged my teenage years. Sadly, unlike Mary I was not grounded in God. When I look back at my teenage self I remember how lost and alone I felt but now many years later and fully cured, I understand that it was food or rather the lack of it that was my idol along with body image, control, and denial. I held onto these idols tightly, in fact, they consumed me. My choices were destroying me. I did not know back then how deeply God loved me. Years later, I now know that daily trust and surrender is key to releasing any chains I put around my heart.

Our Bodies Are Temples of The Holy Spirit
One of the best things I have learned on my journey as a Christian is that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, that is, my body is God’s house and as such belongs to Him. He alone is to be praised and He alone is to be honoured. When my mind turns to false Gods I remember this, I thank God for His love, and I am grateful.


Liz Galsworthy

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