Dear brothers and sisters, if we attend faithfully and diligently and are living holy and upright lives, then whenever we celebrate the solemnity of an altar or church, the actions done in these temples made by human hands are fulfilled in us and build us up spiritually.

For he did not lie who said: “The temple of God is holy, and you are that temple.” When understood spiritually, therefore, this feast is a feast of holy souls, since they are living temples of the living God.

God is indeed to be worshiped in corporeal things, but what are all the churches of the world compared with the marvelous, magnificent and immense creation of his own hands?

When Solomon dedicated his great temple of old, that entire building constructed by craftsmen seemed mean to him in comparison with the loftiness and expanse of the heavens; “The heaven of heavens cannot contain you, he said, how much less this house which I have built?”

But the soul is worthier still, more splendid and more capacious than the heavens, for the entire world cannot fill it. It is made in God’s image, and for this reason the Lord takes his repose in it.

Holy souls are therefore most truly God’s holiest temples. That is why the Apostle says: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”

If you do not believe the Apostle, then believe him who said: “Those who love me will obey my words, and my Father will love them and we will come to them and make our dwelling in them. I will dwell in them and walk about in them.”

Great indeed is the capacity of the soul, if there is room in it not only to dwell but to walk about! What after all are the faculties of upright souls but broad places wherein God walks?

Whenever, then, you feel within yourselves the movements of good desires and dispositions, the pangs of contrition, or the fire of devotion, recognize the steps of God, the signs of the Holy Spirit, as he walks in his temple.

Think, then, dear brothers and sisters, how fearful and anxious the souls of the just should be lest anything base or unbecoming be found in them to offend the eyes of so majestic a God! How carefully they should protect themselves on every side so as not to displease by any wrong thought or desire or action the God who dwells within them! The honor bestowed on them is great, and great should be their fear.

It is for this reason that after the Apostle said: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and God’s Spirit dwells in you?” He rightly added: “If any violate the temple of God, God will destroy them.” What an insult, what wickedness it would be to drive the Holy Spirit from his dwelling and profane his sanctuaries with unclean desires and pleasures!

God says through the prophet: “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” It is as if he were saying: God is holy; therefore let his temple be holy, let the heart be holy, the body holy, speech holy, life holy, manners holy, everything holy!

Let no envious thought or worldly desire, no coarse word or impure movement, no unchaste glance or disordered action be found in those who have consecrated themselves to God.

(Homily on the Dedication of the Church 3-7:
Opera omnia V [Manila], 515-519)

Thomas of Villanova (1486-1555) abandoned an academic career to become in 1516 an Augustinian friar. In 1533 while provincial he sent friars to the New World. After having declined the see of Granada, he was put under obedience to accept the archbishopric of Valencia which had been so neglected that he was excused from attending the Council of Trent. His time and money were devoted to the poor, the sick, and ransoming captives, so that he was called the Beggar Bishop, father of the poor. His many sermons had an influence on Spanish spiritual literature.