MEDITATION TIPS (No. 277)
Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran,
November 9, 2025

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16)

　This happened in America long ago. Eddie was walking along the roadside with his sister Agnes when suddenly a runaway truck hit Agnes, leaving her critically injured. Agnes was immediately taken by ambulance to the hospital with Eddie accompanying her. The paramedics asked about their parents, but their father had left home and no one knew where he was. Their mother was working, but this was a time before mobile phones, and Eddie didn’t know where she was or how to contact her.

　Shortly after arriving at the hospital, a nurse said, “Eddie, can you give some of your blood to Agnes?” At those words, Eddie suddenly turned pale and began to tremble violently. The nurse raised her voice slightly, saying, “What are you hesitating for? If you don’t give her your blood, Agnes won’t survive.” At that, Eddie silently nodded and got into the elevator heading to the operating room with the nurse.

　The surgery went well, and fortunately, Agnes survived. After the operation, Eddie sat alone in a corner of the sofa, silent. He asked the doctor, “Doctor, when am I going to die?” The doctor laughed and replied, “You won’t die just because you gave someone your blood,” and the nurse standing nearby laughed too. Eddie then quietly said, “Oh, really? I thought giving blood to someone would kill me.”

　At that moment, both the doctor and nurse understood the meaning behind Eddy’s pale face and trembling before Agnes’s surgery. Perhaps because the nurse was in a hurry, she hadn’t properly explained the meaning of the transfusion beforehand. Yet Eddy had headed into the operating room intending to die for his one and only sister, Agnes. That elevator had been for Eddy like the elevator to the executioner’s block.

　Moved by the noble intention of this boy who was ready to give his life for his sister, the doctor and nurse were left speechless. They gazed silently at Eddy, as if worshipping a temple in the form of a child.

　“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”

 　　　　　(Contributed by Father Yutaka Akabae)