Reflection for March 3, 2024

Thanks, Aggie. I like the way you applied the Temple of God to all of us who form the Body of Christ. Good suggestions.

Yes, it is so true, Laura and Aggie, that we must turn around all the dehumanizing and degradation of human beings that is so rampant today. Each person is created, fashioned, and formed "in the image and likeness of God," who is LOVE, LIFE, and LIGHT. People who refuse to recognize this, and thus, do not honor the dignity within each person, are "sick with sin."

When unhealed, wounded souls turn their hurt and pain into "hating" and "violating the dignity and rights of others," we, as followers of JESUS, are to stand up, speak out, and take action.

I think of persons like Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was shot and killed while holding up the Bread of Life at a Community Mass with the Poor, for speaking up against the corruption in political and church institutions in El Salvador during the '80's.

Like JESUS, giving his life for the "unseen" and "unheard" all around him, so, too, did Archbishop Romero, who is a declared martyr and saint in the Catholic Church. And like JESUS, Romero's spirit "rose up" within the People who loved and followed him to continue his work.

And Francis, too, shows us this same kind of conversion in his loving response to the leper, who was previously abhorrent to him. Francis encountered the Living Christ in that moment of deeply profound conversion.

Thanks Aggie

Such seemingly simple things to do to keep ourselves, as temples of God, holy to him. We want him to dwell always within us so that as we move through the world, we bring his presence to others in a special way. Thank you for those thoughts!