(Please read the passage cited above first.)
In the second reading today St Paul tells us not to grieve the Holy Spirit. If we offend someone in the community, we also offend the Holy Spirit because all of us together make up the one living temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells.
The vices which Paul lists tear up the community. Everything that tears up the community causes grief in the community and does not honor God or the Holy Spirit.
Now the word of God is not addressed to others; it is addressed to us.
In our day, we can add other evils that can tear up the community. Today St Paul tells us not to grieve the Holy Spirit. He advises us not to tear up the community through what we say and what we that dishonors the women and men of the community.
God speaks to us because the Holy Spirit dwells in our community. The Holy Spirit likewise fills every place in the world and commands us to honor all the peoples of the world.
To the catalogue of vices that Paul lists (bitterness, anger, indignation, insults and evil speech), we can add discrimination based on color, age, religion, place of origin or birth. We have an obligation to honor and respect everyone else.
All these evils injure the community of God which is the Church where the Holy Spirit dwells.
Those who tear up the community likewise do not understand the Eucharist, and they dishonor the body of Christ which is the sacrament of unity of Christ with his sacramental body. The Eucharist includes the body and blood of Christ under the forms of bread and wine, and likewise in the form of al believers. The Eucharist includes a sacramental dimension and a social dimension in the totality of this Eucharist.
We must imitate God as God’s beloved children. Let us live by loving like Christ, for Christ loved us up to the end and through the end into eternity. God made us so that we could be an offering and a victim of sweet fragrance that God takes delight in.
Let us not grieve the Holy Spirit, but let us. On the other hand, praise and glorify God in what we do, in what we say and in our active participation in the Mass.