Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas, Priest & Doctor of the Church
“Let us build a house where love can dwell, and all can safely live…” As I read 2 Samuel today, these lyrics from the hymn “All are Welcome” sing in my soul. David, with his typical enthusiasm, is eager to build God a house in which to dwell. God pushes back a bit, though, “Did I ask you to build me house?” God reminds David that God has been journeying with the people in the moving tabernacle, under cloth. God does promise a day when God will raise one from David’s lineage to build a temple. We know that One to be Jesus the Christ!
God fulfills the promise to David, and yet Christ does not build a house in which God dwells using stone or wood or the usual building materials. Instead, God comes and dwells among us in flesh, a living tabernacle. Christ commands us at the last supper to eat his body and drink his blood. In the Eucharist, we take Christ into our bodies, and we become the living tabernacle. Together, we are the Body of Christ!
When we celebrate the Mass we celebrate the liturgy of the Word and the liturgy of the Eucharist, a unity. We become the Body of Christ in the celebration of the Eucharist. Similarly, we become the Word Incarnate in the celebration of the liturgy of the Word, the first half of Mass.
Jesus reminds us in the Gospel today that sometimes the Word falls on rocky soil in our hearts. Sometimes, we respond with enthusiasm and let the weeds of life choke it out. Sometimes, the Word flourishes in us. For me, each of these things happens daily.
In the celebration of these mysteries, we are invited to become God’s love walking in the world, the Body of Christ given to the world. May our lives, individually and together, be a living tabernacle, and walking Word, creating a world in which children are fed and live safely, in which immigrants are welcomed, in which the color of one’s skin does not lead to arrest or killing. May we be willing to give our lives in small and ultimate ways to be the Body of Christ.
Let us build a house, the house of our bodies, in which love can dwell.
—Kelly Adamson