Companions on the Journey

In today’s first reading, Eph 2: 19-22, St. Paul reminds us that we “are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone [and] that through him, “the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him…[we] are also being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”

My mind is filled with awe as I think of the fact that I am a companion on a journey to life in Christ Jesus, each of us individually and all of us together, being built into a Temple for the Lord.  I share this journey into God’s Kingdom being built here on earth and within each of us with those with whom I live, with those with whom I have difficulty, with those I love in Christ Jesus but actually do not like, with those whom I perceive as my enemies, as enemies of the U.S., of the Church, of my religious community.

Do I truly realize what this means? And if did, would I be less bothered by those whom I would love to change into “my image,” yes, my image, though I might believe that I want them transformed into the image of Christ!  If I truly believed that God is holding “the whole structure…together” and that it is, by the action of the Holy Spirit within it, growing “into a temple sacred in the Lord,…a dwelling place of God in the Spirit,” would I not be more free, less afraid, less worried and anxious when I come face to face with sin in myself, in others, in the world, in the church, in society? Would I not be more willing “to let go and let God,” as the people in AA and in Al-Anon are encouraged to do?