Since your bodies are members of Christ, glorify God in, and through them. The Church honors today the memory of St. Maria Goretti, one of the Church’s youngest modern day saints. Born into a peasant family in the early 1900’s, Maria Goretti was well known to her neighbors for her cheerfulness and piety. At only twelve years of age, Maria met her death at the hands of a young man whose sexual advances she had rejected. She chose to die rather than participate in the defilement of her body. She is the patron saint of teenage girls. 
At her young age, Maria Goretti was not a seasoned Christian by all means. She was neither an expert in the Scriptures nor a theologian. However, she understood the implication of what St. Paul says in the passage we have heard in the First Reading of today. Paul reminds the members of the Corinthian community the implication of their baptism. During baptism, an individual joins the self to that of Christ, and by so doing ends up being not only a new creation but also a member of Christ’s body. A baptized individual ‘cedes’ the right to her/his body for the old self having died with Christ in baptism, the resulting new body is that of Christ and must be treated as such. Consequently, any sin against one’s body is a sin against the body of Christ. As young as she was, Maria Goretti understood that her body was sacred and a temple of the Lord and as such was not subject to defilement.
Whereas Paul was addressing a specific sin against the body (sexual immorality), there are many different ways through which we end up defiling our bodies. Any neglect or mistreatment of the body such as drug abuse or workaholism is a sin against the body. Like Maria Goretti, we should stay alert when it comes to anything that can render our bodies defiled and as a result unfit for the dwelling of the Holy Spirit. For without the Spirit of God to guide us, the Lord cannot use us as his instruments of proclaiming the Good News. Through the intercession of Maria Goretti, may we too remain steadfast in giving God glory through our bodies.