The difference between what is holy and what is unholy should not escape the eyes of a Christian, because it has a direct bearing on the paramount question of his salvation. As righteousness has no partnership with lawlessness and as light has no fellowship with darkness (2 Cor 6:14) so is holiness distinct from impurity. The fountain of all holiness is God and the source of everything unholy is Satan, who is also the author of all lies.
Jesus has told us that the father of those who stand against him is also the devil (Jn 8:44). Paul the Apostle knew exactly the distinction between what is holy and what in unholy and exhorted his people; ‘Therefore come out from them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you, and I will be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty’ (2 Cor 6:17-18).
The devil too knows what distinguishes holiness, a realm that is beyond his reach, from impurity that characterizes his domain. So he takes pleasure in defiling what is holy. This is the reason why he wastes no opportunity to insult the Most Holy Eucharist. None knows the value of the Holy Eucharist that contains the true body and blood of the Son of God, better than Satan. Nobody needs to teach him that the bodies of those who receive the Holy Eucharist are consecrated to heaven.
In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul reminds us of the sacredness of our bodies. ‘Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God?’ (1 Cor 6:19). The supernatural sacredness of our bodies is not something that we earned by our efforts, but the result of our Lord’s sacrifice in cross and because of the work of the Holy Spirit whom he poured upon us. In short ‘by the grace of God we are what we are’. The apostle reminds us again; ‘You are not your own. For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body’ (1 Cor 6:20).
Our body is a temporary abode for the Spirit.’…These mortals who were made of earth a short time before and after a little while go to the earth from which all mortals are taken, when the time comes to return the souls that were borrowed’ (Wis 15:8). The devil knows that the short period of human life when the Spirit is present in the human body is the apt time to insult the divine. In fact, of all the activities that he does, the devil derives maximum pleasure out of hurting God, and hurting the divine part of human self is an easy way for him to enjoy this perverted pleasure. We should view the schemes of the evil spirit to trap us in sins of the flesh in this backdrop. His only intention is to fill the bodies of Christians, that have received the Holy Eucharist and that are consecrated to the Holy Spirit, with every kind of impurity.
The Book of Revelation uses the imagery of a great whore to describe the wave of sins against holiness that is set to flood the world in the end times. The Scripture testifies that ‘with the wine of (her) fornication the inhabitants of the earth have become drunk’ (Rev 17:2). ‘Clothed in purple and scarlet’, this whore was seen ‘holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication’ (Rev 17:4). ‘She has become a dwelling place of demons, a haunt of every foul spirit, a haunt of every foul bird, and a haunt of every foul and hateful beast’ (Rev 18:2). The devil’s wish is to flood our sacred bodies with this seemingly unstoppable flood of impurity.
If the minions of the devil have set their eyes on the sacred bodies of Christians, know that they are set to buy our bodies again for slavery, from where our Lord once redeemed us by paying a heavy ransom in the form of his precious blood. By defiling the body of the believer the evil one thinks that he can mock the Holy Spirit at his very abode. Just like Jesus Christ, our bodies are also supposed to transform into a heavenly body and we have received its token in the form of the Holy Spirit. How happy will then the devil be, when he gets the opportunity to defile those precious bodies and desecrate the homes of the Holy Spirit!
Now think. Are we nourishing our bodies with Holy Eucharist and other sacraments to make it a tool of pleasure for the ancient serpent who stands as the eternal enemy of God and who, by the same reason, is our enemy too?
Those who deny the divinity of Jesus Christ are ignorant of the merits of his precious blood; nor do they know the glory of his holy body. They fail to understand who the Holy Spirit is; but they know that the bodies of Christians are sacred for reasons that escape their reason. So they do what their father commanded them; defiling the bodies of Christians!
We should shed tears for our children who, closing their eyes to Jesus Christ the eternal light, fly into the black veils of darkness. They need our prayers. They do not know that their journey ignoring the sun of righteousness (Mal 4:2) is towards deep blackholes from where no return is ever possible. When they miss the point that a heavy price will be demanded from those who mock the spirit of grace, as heirs to that grace, it is our duty to remind them. To remind them and also us it is written in the letter to the Hebrews; ‘How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace?’ (Heb. 10:29).
Our bodies are something that are sown perishable but to be raised imperishable (1 Cor 15:42). So it should be our ultimate goal to stay away from everything that has the prospect of defiling our bodies, that are though sown in dishonor, are destined to be raised in glory.
Let us pray for the grace to keep a safe distance from everything that would bring dishonor to our bodies. Let us also pray for getting the discernment to know the snares set by the devil to lure us into impurity.
