the mystical temple of god 656 As I bring this chapter to an end I wish an increase in good works to be effected within myself and every mortal. For through these the Mystical House of God is repaired and through these the mercy of God is obtained. Our works follow us. “Assuredly on the day of Judgment,” (someone said devoutly) “we shall not be asked what we have read, but what we have done; nor how well we have spoken, but in what saintly manner we have lived.”209 When will this be? “When the Son of Man comes in His glory,” (He replies) “and all the angels withHim, He will sit uponHis glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before Him. And He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’” (Mt 25:3134). O most delightful “come!” But by which virtue was it brought forth? By the works of Christian mercy. “For I was hungry,” (proceeds God our Judge) “and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me” (Mt 25:35-36). And so let us apply ourselves to the works of mercy, let us exert ourselves; through them we restore the Temples of God, our souls; we repair, I say, the inner man; we shall hear “blessed,” and we shall possess the heavenly kingdom. CHAPTER 22 The Reconciliation of the Mystical Temple This takes place in Penance and in Holy Communion. For when the Temple of God that we are is polluted by sins, especially mortal ones, one may conclude [what will happen] from the following admonition of St. Maximus: “whoever,” he says, “either is a Temple of God or desires to be one, should be very careful that pursuing 209 IC, Bk. I, Ch. 3.
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