Our Body is a temple

The Synoptic Gospels record one visit of Jesus to Jerusalem during his earthly ministry. In this only visit to the capital, Jesus drove out the traders in the courtyard of the Temple, the second one built by the Jews returning from Babylon at around 519 B.C. and took 3 years to finish. To please the people, Herod the Great started renovating it extensively, beginning at around 19 B.C.
From the gospel reading today, we learn that the renovation work of the Temple had been going on continually for decades.
The Jews then said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?" (John 2:20)

The Gospel of John mentioned several visits of Jesus to Jerusalem. During the very first one, Jesus had antagonized the Jewish authority for cleansing the Temple. That explains why Jesus met so many enemies and opposition from his own people during his earthly ministry. The Synoptic Gospels condense these visits into one last visit near the end of Jesus' ministry.
In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus quoted Jeremiah 7:11, saying that the Jewish authority which managed the Temple had turned it into a den of robbers (Matthew 21:13, Mark 11:17, Luke 19:46). However, in John, Jesus said in his own authority that the people had turned the Temple into an emporium (a house of negotiations). But it was the disciples who remembered a quotation from Psalm 69:9 which does not condemn anybody.
And he told those who sold the pigeons, "Take these things away; you shall not make my Father's house a house of trade."
His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for thy house will consume me." (John 2:16-17)

When the Jews demanded Jesus to show them what authority he had in causing disorders in the Temple, Jesus made a very tricky, sly and apparently irresponsible answer.
Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." (John 2:19).
Of course we understand what Jesus meant. But please think about those pitiful Jews who were ignorant of what Jesus actually was. Who, in his sanity, would pull down the Temple for a Galilean Rabbi who boasted of his capability to rebuild it in just three days? Even Herod the Great had to amass enough building materials next to the Temple site before he started pulling it down and rebuilding it in 18 months. Jesus did not give them any down payment or reassurance. No wonder nobody would believe him. Even his disciples would not believe until his resurrection. After that, they understood his words and the meaning of the scripture.
But he spoke of the temple of his body. 
When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. (John 2:21-22)
What scripture? It can only be the Psalm. "Zeal for thy house will consume me."
What did the disciples believe? That this passage came true in the most literal way: Jesus demonstrated his zeal for God's Temple and this cost his life. He paid the price by dying on the cross.
The word "consume" means "to eat/be eaten" both in Hebrew and Greek. Thus, in another level, this verse is fulfilled in the bread of life, the sacrament of the Eucharist. Suddenly, everything falls into place and makes sense.
Jesus spoke of the temple of his body. His body is the new Temple, the Church. This is the teaching of the Mystic Body. Jesus is the Head of the Body and we are the members of the Body (meaning limbs and body parts) as well as members of the Church (as an organization).
His body is also the bread of life, to be consumed by his believers. His body is the sacrament that nourishes the believers.

Forever a moralist, Paul the Pharisee develops this body image and opposes prostitution and all kinds of sexual immorality. Paul teaches that our body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16). The Holy Spirit dwells in this Temple. Since all sexual sins are defilement of the body. Therefore, sexual immorality is a defilement of the Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:15-19). Paul needed only to take one further step to turn the Temple of the Holy Spirit into a sacrament. He didn't perhaps he had not yet developed the concept of a sacrament. When the second generation Christians tried to explain their beliefs to the Greek civilization, they unwittingly adopted their philosophy and despised the body. The Christians in subsequent generations forgot Paul's teaching and had never dreamt of the body as a sacrament.

The Roman Catholic Church has developed a mature theology of the Sacrament. Simply put, a sacrament is a visible sign signifying the invisible grace granted by God. In a sacrament, we encounter God and received His blessing. Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. Jesus is the proto-sacrament from which all other sacraments are derived. The Church is the basic sacrament of Jesus. From the Church, we receive the 7 sacraments.
The late Pope John Paul II develops a theology of the body in his 170 plus homilies. He applies the concept of sacrament to the body.  Our body is the visible sign of the invisible '"I/me", the materialization of the "I/me" as a person. That is why Genesis says that man was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). Our body is also our gift to our spouse, to the others and to the world. In short, our body is also a sacrament. With this body, the others encounter a visible me, an image of God. Through me, the others receive the blessings from God. At last, our body has reclaimed its dignity.
Jesus has already taught us this theology of the body when he points to his body and calls it "Temple". Truly, our body is a temple which is a sacrament that brings blessings and grace to the people we meet.

Dear Lord, forgive me for not keeping this temple clean. I pray that I go to confession before Easter. Amen.