The Church As The Temple Of Holy Spirit
The Church is a Temple of the Holy Spirit because it holds the grace of God within. Our bodies are also temples of the Holy Spirit. The Church, or Temple, is a visible sign of God's covenant with David. Jesus is the cornerstone of the Church, and we are the living stones that make up his Holy Temple which houses the Holy Spirit.
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all.
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
Each and every one of us is called to be a Temple of the Holy Spirit: it allows us to grow closer with God as well as deepening and strengthening our faith. By having the Holy Spirit within us, we also learn to use the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives.
The Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the soul, as it were, of the Mystical Body, the source of its life, of its unity in diversity, and of the riches of its gifts and charisms. Hence the universal Church is seen to be a people brought into unity from the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church. To this Spirit of Christ, as an invisible principle, is to be ascribed the fact that all the parts of the body are joined one with the other and with their exalted Head; for the whole Spirit of Christ is in the head, the whole Spirit is in the body, and the whole Spirit is in each of the members. The Holy Spirit makes the Church 'the temple of the living God' Indeed, it is to the Church herself that the 'Gift of God' has been entrusted. In it is in her that communion with Christ has been deposited, that is to say: the Holy Spirit, the pledge of incorruptibility, the strengthening of our faith, and the ladder of our ascent to God. For where the Church is, there also is God's Spirit; where God's Spirit is, there is the Church and every grace. The Holy Spirit is the principle of every vital and truly saving action in each part of the body. He works in many ways to build up the whole Body in charity by God's Word 'which is able to build you up' (Acts 20:32); by Baptism, through which he forms Christ's Body by the sacraments, which give growth and healing to Christ's members by the grace of the apostles, which holds first place among his gifts; by the virtues, which make us act according to what is good; finally, by the many special graces (called 'charisms'), by which he makes the faithful fit and ready to undertake various tasks and offices for the renewal and building up of the Church.
