The Dwelling Place of God - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon

0:00 Peace be with you, friends. On this fifth Sunday of Easter, we have these marvelous readings that are linked in a really interesting way, but I think you've got to be attentive to a somewhat hidden theme that runs like a golden thread through them. And the theme is the temple. The temple in Jerusalem was the focal point of Jewish life. It was everything, political, cultural, and, of course, religious center of the country. It was seen in almost literal sense as the dwelling place of God on earth. The temple dominated their consciousness. And to understand the New Testament text, we have to see the importance of the temple. Well, look at the first thing now. Reading one is from the Acts of the Apostles. The first part of it is all about the choosing of deacons. As I record these words, I'll be ordaining deacons here shortly, and we'll, I'm sure, read this reading. But I want to draw attention to what happens now at the very end.

0:55 It says, The word of God continued to spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly. Now listen, even a large group of priests were becoming obedient to the faith. That was of monumental significance. Who were the priests? Well, they were the chief officers of the temple. They were the ones who presided over the animal sacrifices, the prayers, the instruction at the temple. They were the officers of this great place. If they were accepting the faith, what does that mean? It means that in some way they sensed Jesus represented the fulfillment of the temple. Not the repudiation of it. That's the wrong way to think about it. Not like an either or. But Jesus is the fulfillment of all that happened in the temple. And indeed, it's all through the Gospels.

1:50 This language of sacrifice and atonement and blood offering and the veil being torn in two and all of that. Well, the priests, see, these priests, these early, early figures understood that. The link between what they were doing in the temple and what Jesus accomplished. Okay, so keep that in mind from reading one. Now, listen to reading two, which is from first letter of Peter. Peter, who would have been intimately aware of the temple and its workings, he says, Beloved, come to him, Christ, a living stone, rejected by human beings, but chosen and precious in the sight of God. Well, I submit to you, the stone being referred to here is the cornerstone of the temple. rejected by men but made by God the cornerstone of the true temple this place of right praise now you say well wait a minute why would you automatically think he's talking about the temple well listen to what comes right after so come to Jesus the stone chosen by God and then listen let yourselves be built like living stones into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

3:21 Now, that couldn't be any clearer. So Christ is the cornerstone. Okay, got that. And now you, his followers, you, members of his body, to choose a different metaphor, but you are to be built into an edifice of living stones based upon the cornerstone of Christ. It's a slightly different metaphor from head and members, but it's cornerstone and living stones making up a new and true temple. Ah, now the attentive reader will remember in the Gospel of John when Jesus says, I'm going to tear down this old temple and in three days rebuild it, referring to the temple of his body. Now we understand what the church is. We understand what those priests, those early temple priests understood.

4:16 that in Jesus and his church, the work of the temple is brought to fulfillment. Now, what does this mean? The temple was the place where God and humanity came together, where the human sacrifice was offered to God and the divine grace accepted that sacrifice and a reconciliation between God and humanity was effected. That's what the temple meant. It was a kind of trysting place between divinity and humanity, where a ruptured relationship was healed. Okay, now we understand the purpose of a church. Oh, it's a club of like-minded people. It's those who believe in Jesus. No, that's just way too flat. The church is the mystical body of Jesus.

5:11 That's a really rich image. That means we're his hands and fingers and eyes and feet. We're the means by which Jesus continues his work in the world. But now this metaphor, the church is the true temple, which means the place of right praise that affects a union between divinity and humanity.

5:32 How do people come to God? They come to God through the church. it's it's something rather staggering and extraordinary to say really that's true we embodying our relationship to christ to the wider world now serve to bring people to the lord they see in our right praise and the way our lives are ordered according to right praise they see their access to God. Just think of, you know, for a second, the people in your life who brought you to Christ. It's by their own attractiveness, their own spiritual magnetism that you were drawn to Christ. That's how the church works. It's the temple. You become a trysting place between divinity and humanity.

6:31 See, that's it. Let yourself be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood. Okay. What's a priest? A priest offers sacrifice. What does sacrifice do? It reconciles divinity and humanity. Every baptized person, Catholic doctrine teaches, every baptized person is priest, prophet, and king. By the way, with that in mind, listen. This is how the reading ends. for today. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. I don't know any better description of the church anywhere in the Bible. We talk about the baptized as priest, prophet, and king. Well, listen, you're a royal priesthood, priest and king. King, you order and govern.

7:29 Priest, you perform a sacrifice that reconciles. Every baptized person does those. And then how about prophet? Prophet speaks God's word, that you might announce the praises of him who's called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. What do we do as members of the church? We tell the world, we prophesize, we speak the divine word to draw people into a relationship with the Lord. There it is. we're the temple, we're the temple, the place of right praise. All right, so reading one, the priests, reading two, the church is being built up on the cornerstone of Christ into a edifice of living stones. Now, the gospel. Jesus, now the night before he dies, addressing his disciples in this extraordinary speech that he gives. Jesus says, Do not let your hearts be troubled, but have faith in God and faith also in me.

8:28 Why? In my Father's house, there are many dwelling places. If there were not, what I have told you, I'm going to prepare a place for you. In my Father's house, what's the Father's house? Any first century Jew hearing that would say the temple. the temple is the father's house that's where the the god of israel dwells and the temple there was you know room in the outer courts and all that to gather in the world in my father's house there are many dwelling places so the temple in jerusalem anticipates the temple of the church in which there are many many mansions i always go back to that the image of the Bernini Colonnade at St. Peter's going out to welcome in the whole world. I've been there so many times in that square, and indeed you sense that the whole world is coming.

9:29 Yeah, there are many dwelling places in the temple of the church as it gathers in the nations. But now wait. Jerusalem temple, the temple of the church, the edifice of living stones. But both of those are finally symbolic of, finally they are anticipations of the truest temple, which is what? Heaven. What's my father's house? Jerusalem, temple, okay, church, yeah. Ultimately, the father's house is heaven. that space, listen now, that opens up between the Father and the Son.

10:21 The Son went all the way to the limits of God-forsakenness to gather in, even the worst of sinners, to gather in to the space in between the Father and the Son, which is called the Holy Spirit. the Holy Spirit is the love that connects the Father and the Son in my Father's house there are many dwelling places what we're talking about here everybody it's a mystical significance here the earthly temple of Jerusalem even the temple of the church are but anticipations of it the temple in heaven when we in the fulfillment of our spiritual lives are drawn into the space between the Father and the Son.

11:12 Is there room for all of us? Yeah. In my Father's house, there are many dwelling places. Is it a place of competition? No, no, no. There's room for all of us. Well, wait a minute. If I get a space, that means you don't get a space. No, no, no. It doesn't work that way.

11:33 The Jerusalem temple and the church are symbolic anticipations of the way. that God the Father wants to gather through the Son all of us into the embrace of the Holy Spirit. Listen again to him. And if I go, as he's talking about the night before he dies now, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself so that where I am, you also may be.

12:05 That's everything. That's the spiritual life. Now listen, Thomas wonderfully says to him, Master, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way? Jesus says, I am the way. I'm the way. How do you get into the Father's house? Follow him. Walk according to his path. Think as he thinks. See as he sees. Act as he acts. Remember, he's the shepherd. Follow him. I'm the way. But mind you, I'm also the truth and the life. That means I'm the way in and I'm the goal of the process. Because the mansion I'm inviting you into is the mansion of God's own inner life.

12:56 See, Christianity is not just about being a nice person in this world. It's not just about making the world a better place. I mean, fine, fine. What it's finally about is this mystical insertion into the definitive temple, the definitive place of right praise. The priests of the Jerusalem temple, they sensed in Christ this was coming to a fulfillment. The church represents on earth the symbolic anticipation of it. But finally, it's the heavenly temple, the Father's house, where there's room for all of us in the great space of the Holy Spirit.

13:44 That, everybody, is the consummation, really, of what we call the resurrection of the Lord. That's the consummation of the whole life of the church, to be gathered into that sacred temple. And God bless you.