A Temple of the Holy Spirit

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Daniel & Catherine ready for Confirmation I had the privilege of witnessing my son and daughter receive the Sacrament of Confirmation this past Tuesday at the Basilica of Our Lady of the Annunciation in Lancaster, OH. It was a wonderful Mass with a full choir, trumpets, and all the rest. During his remarks, Bishop Earl K. Fernandes mentioned that we too, like the Basilica, are temples of the Lord. It caused me to reflect on this idea. Although I've mostly seen only pictures of the great cathedrals and basilicas in the world, I have seen some amazing churches even in our own diocese. These structures are a testament to the Church's love for God (read the entire Church - Militant, Suffering, Triumphant). They represent great skill, sacrifice, and passion for Our Lord and often times His Mother.  Yet the words of Christ always echo in my mind when contemplating the beauty that surrounds me in those places; “ Do you see these great buildings? There will not be one stone left u
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Real Peace

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Thursday of the First Week of Advent - Readings
Saint Nicholas

"All men seek happiness. There are no exceptions. However different the means they may employ, they all strive towards this goal... The will never takes the least step except to that end. This is the motive of every act of every man..." Blaise Pascal

I believe that we could replace happiness with peace in the above quote. I am not here speaking of peace as an absence of trouble or difficulty but rather a peace that is present in the midst of trouble and difficulty. We are all seeking peace in our hearts, families, relationships, and the world. We want a peace that lasts regardless of the storms of life. Mr. Pascal goes on to say, "God alone is man's true good, and since man abandoned him it is a strange fact that nothing in nature has been found to take his place..." No thing can bring us peace or happiness. Only God can give us that.

In the first reading, from the prophet Isaiah, peace is mentioned as something that is given to a nation (or to a person) who trusts in the Lord. It then goes on to say that the Lord is trustworthy. He is a Rock that does not move, that is unshaken, and gives us a firm foundation. If we have a firm foundation, we can trust. If we can trust, we can have peace.

Jesus echos the words of Isaiah in the Gospel by telling us that the wise man is one who builds his house on a rock. He does not say that there will not be storms and trials. He does not say that there will not be times when we may think everything is about to fall upon us. He does say that the house of the wise man, "did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock." We can trust His words that if we build our house upon the rock it will not collapse.

It is interesting to note that here Jesus does not call Himself a or the rock. He says that it is as if you are building on a rock if you listen to and act upon His words. Listening and acting upon His words are the key. Those two actions, listening and acting, set us upon the rock solid foundation of the Lord and therefore bring us peace, the peace that can stand when, "rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house." The storms of life cannot effect one who builds his life on the foundation of Christ's words.

One other interesting note is that a few chapters later Jesus, the wise man greater than Solomon, builds something on a rock. He builds His Church upon a rock that is Peter. If Christ trusts Peter enough to build His Church upon Him, how much more should I seek to build my life on that Rock as well. Peter and his successors are not another rock apart from God. They are the rock God chose to build upon for Peter and his successors "listen and act" upon His words and therefore teach us how to find everlasting peace.

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