How many of you here have been to Rome, Italy and seen St. Peter’s Basilica or St. Paul’s Basilica Outside the Walls? Weren’t they simply spectacular? But I want to ask, “Why build such mega-colossal-awesome buildings in honor of mere men?” Answer to this question lies in St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.” (1 Cor 6:19) In other words, the beauty and the glory of these physical temples reflect the beauty and the glory of the spiritual temple that God has built in us through our baptism. Although both Peter and Paul are mere humans, they have been transformed completely from their former selves. No longer are they old wine skins; they are new wine skins containing new wine, the Holy Spirit. So the physical architecture and artwork of St. Peters Basilica are reflecting the dignity of who we are. This is the mystery of our baptism and our on-going conversion. Some of you may have read my vocation story in the June 4th article in the Catholic Commentator. 17 years ago, I was a New Age believer, a person who erroneously thought that he was a god. Like Adam and Eve who bought the temptation from Satan that they can be like gods, I bought the same temptation. At that time I was closer in relationship to Satan than to God the Almighty. I did not know at that time the beauty and the dignity of who I was as a baptized Catholic. Isn’t it amazing then, that God is able to transform these hands, mind, and heart which were instruments of selfishness into instrument of God’s healing and charity.
You know both Peter and Paul were men of deep flaws in the beginning. One was an uneducated fisherman who flew by the seat of his pants. Another was a real smart cookie who had an ice-cold, judgmental heart, willing to kill for what he believed. Would they have been, then, worthy of such magnificent basilicas? No. But the same God who elevated these ordinary men to sainthood is doing the same with us. This past Friday night and Saturday morning, I was in Houma at the youth conference called Steubenville on the Bayou. I spent about 3-4 hours total hearing confessions of young high school students. What I was so impressed by was that all the young people visiting my confessional were so filled with desire to be holy and to be pure. They understood Jesus’ words, “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” If there is one great temptation for the young people of this generation is impurity. Yet these young people were desiring to clean out their temple of the Holy Spirit; they came to Jesus asking him to drive out the money changers and all the filth that was occupying their beautiful temple dedicated to God the Father. And isn’t God amazing, using me, an unworthy instrument who was an enemy of God in my earlier years, as instrument of his mercy. He has transformed me so radically that I can now say to these young people, “And I absolve you from your sins, in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” That’s God’s power. And today’s feast day of St. Peter and St. Paul is a reminder that God desires to restore us, the temple of the Holy Spirit, to the true glory and true beauty as He intended from the beginning.
