Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw pearls before swine, lest they trample them under foot and turn to attack you.
Matthew 7:6
As Orthodox Christians, we believe that when we receive Holy Communion, we are receiving THE Body and THE Blood of Jesus Christ. We go to great lengths to protect the Body and Blood of Christ during the service. We put covers on the chalice and the patent to make sure none of the elements can spill when we carry them around the church at the Great Entrance. When a person receives Holy Communion, a cloth bridges the gap between the chalice and their mouth, so that if any of the Communion were to fall, it would fall on the cloth and not on the floor. When the Divine Liturgy is over, the priest consumes whatever is left of the Holy Communion in the chalice, then pours water into the chalice multiple times and drinks that, to make sure that every particle of the Holy Communion is consumed, that nothing remains.
St. Paul writes in I Corinthians 3:16-17: Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If any one destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are. We are God’s temple because we are God’s creation, and because through Holy Communion, God resides in us. We are so careful with Holy Communion in the Church, we should also take the same care with our bodies since we have put Holy Communion into them. There should be a metaphorical “cloth” around our lives, to protect Christ who is inside of us.
We would never be reckless and certainly not profane in handling the Body of Christ. We would not ever be careless with it. On the contrary, we are very careful. We would never carry the full chalice outside on the streets or place it on the front seat of a car where it could spill.
In the same way we are careful with Holy Communion, we are also careful with the Church Sanctuary. We don’t have dinners or sports activities or other things in the church. Can you imagine banging a basketball off an icon? Certainly not! To do such a thing would be to “profane” the holy image.
In Genesis 1:26-27, we read that in creating the human being, God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. The word “image” in Greek is the word eikona which we also translate as “icon.” In other words, God made man as an icon of Himself. We are icons, images of God, because that is how God made us. Just as we would not profane the icons that adorn the walls of our churches, we should not be profaning ourselves, the icons that stand in the pews. And whether we are in the church worshipping or outside of church doing other things, our identity as icons of God is with us at all times and in all places. This identity is not just like a hat we take on and off. Thus, in our lives, we must guard our bodies, our eyes, our minds, our mouths and be careful with how we take care of our bodies, what we see with our eyes, the thoughts that occupy our minds (as well as the things we intake in order to get our minds thinking in a bad way), and what we say with our mouths.
In Matthew 7:6, Jesus captures these sentiments, as he teaches: “Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw pearls before swine, lest they trample them under foot and turn to attack you.” In other words, we feed dogs dog food, not the most expensive gourmet food that we consume. We would not eat dog food. We wouldn’t take fine pearls, which are expensive and beautiful, and throw them into the mud pit inhabited by swine. Pearls are cherished and taken care of.
This is why the Church is so careful. We are people created for holiness, and the work of the church is to lead us to holiness. As members of the church, this is why we have to be so careful with how we represent Christ, how we prepare to receive Christ, and how to behave after we’ve received Christ.
O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless His name; tell of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the people! For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols; but the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are His sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering, and come into His courts! Worship the Lord in holy array; tremble before Him all the earth! Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns! Yea, the world is established, it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.” Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy before the Lord, for He comes, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with His truth. Psalm 96
Point to ponder: Is my behavior in line with a holy relationship with Christ? As a representative of Christ (a Christian), and a receiver of Christ (in the Eucharist), am I making an effort to guard my life as a life that strives to be holy?
