Jesus Cleanses the Temple. We are the temples

Mar 08^th , 2015 Sunday homily: Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI,

 Ex 20: 1-17; I Cor 1:22-25; Jn 2:13-25

For Readings

http://www.usccb.org/nab/030815.shtml

There is a funny story about the childhood days of  Franklin D. Roosevelt.  Little Teddy Roosevelt had a problem.  When he was a child his mother, Mitty, found that he was so afraid of the Madison Square Church that he refused to set foot inside of it alone.  He was terrified, as she discovered, of something called "The Zeal."  It crouched in dark corners ready to pounce upon him.  And when she asked him what Zeal might be, he said that he couldn't exactly describe it, but he thought it might be something like an alligator. And he heard the pastor read about it from the Bible one day.  So using a concordance, Mitty read him those passages containing the word zeal until suddenly he stopped her very excited, and said "That’s it!"  The line was from the Book of John, Chapter 2, verse 17, which reads, "And his disciples remembered that it was written the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up."  In today’s gospel passage may not be the word ‘zeal’ , but figure of angry Jesus, may scare us or may challenge us to examine ourselves to see, if Jesus will have to take a whip when he comes to our hearts – the temple of the Holy Spirit.  

First reading from the book of Exodus gives the Ten Commandments of God, which were the basis of the religious life of Israelites. St.Paul in the second reading tells of the reason the Jews failed to understand Jesus as He came like a suffering servant while Jews were waiting for a political Messiah. In the gospel we see Jesus while entering the temple makes it clear to the Jewish leaders and people that He was someone special and close to God whose house they were desecrating and whom He even called His Father.

Why was this church building built? It was built to be a temple. Our church building here has one chief purpose, namely to immerse us in the joy and peace of our relationship with God. It's a dedicated sacred space. A temple is God's house, where God and we can be together with each other. God is present here. This is God's house, not just our house. That flickering light or candle with its eternal flame always burning, is a signal telling us that the Eternal One dwells in this space. We therefore ought to conduct ourselves reverently in this church. This is extra-ordinary space in an extra-ordinary building that is God's house, a temple of the Lord. All of this help to explain the angry and violent reaction of Jesus when He entered the Temple in Jerusalem and found it being treated more like a shopping mall.

To corrupt what is holy, is a terrible and personal insult to God. The corruption of the Temple’s sanctity caused Jesus to blaze out in anger. It was a practice that several thousands of Passover victims- oxen, sheep and doves were sacrificed during Passover at Jesus’ time. As Jews were coming to Jerusalem from all over the world for Passover, most of these animals were bought from temple premises only. Since Jews had to purchase sacrifice with Jewish currency, as Roman coins were considered as idolatrous due to pagan inscriptions and images on it, money exchange was a must. All of these were a big business with corruption, cheating, dishonesty and exploitation at the top. Poor people coming to worship God were being ripped off. So Jesus said, “You have made it a den of thieves”. Nowhere else we see him in the Scriptures expressing such an anger. For Jesus, his Heavenly Father always took first place with him. When we value our relationship with God, everything else falls into place. When God is forgotten, then we have no anchor, no ground on which to base our existence.  A church is the place where we come to enter into intimate conversation with God.  In this building many prodigal sons and daughters have met the merciful Lord in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and been welcomed back to divine worship. Many times I have seen people, praying with tears in this church.  In this church, tears have been shed by those in pain and grief, and found consolation and peace. 

Each one of us here is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Each one of us here is a walking, living temple, in which God is made present to others, made available to others. Our heart is the tabernacle. Without faith in God and awareness of God’s presence in us, our lives become nothing more than an ordinary animal, with higher brain functioning, just as a dog to a fox, man to a monkey. Faith in God obliges us, to see the sanctity of human body and to take responsibility to preserve that sanctity, and to keep the flame burning in our heart without ceasing. We need to meet God at the end, taking that flame with us, as we have to stand before God for judgment. That is why our Holy Father, Pope Francis reminds us to cleanse us from our sins, especially during this Lenten period. No unholy thoughts, actions, relationships, or evil efforts, whether secret or public, will lead us to God. It may compel Jesus to take the whip.

Lent is given to us each year, so that we might examine and improve the quality of our lives individually and collectively. As our Holy Father Pope Francis reminds us, let us make efforts to overcome the temptation of indifference if any, towards God and our fellow beings. Let us become the person of self-giving and concern. God's expression of Himself, God's Eternal Word, is made flesh and blood in each one of us here. We receive the living sacramental Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion, in order that He might not only dwell within us, but also become actually who and what we are as persons. We constitute the living stones of God's temple here on earth. Let’s keep our church and our body holy, and treasure it. God bless you.