Friends,
in today’s Gospel we see Jesus cleansing the Temple. What did it mean
for a provincial prophet to come into the holy city of Jerusalem and
make a ruckus in the Temple? Well, you can probably imagine. To make
matters worse, Jesus says something that is as shocking as his actions.
He says, "I will destroy this temple and in three
days rebuild it." No wonder that it was precisely this act that led to
his crucifixion.
So
what was he doing and why? First, in showing his lordship over even
this most sacred symbol, he was announcing who he was. Throughout the
Gospels, Jesus acts in the person of God. Secondly, he was instituting a
new temple, the temple of his crucified and risen body. Jesus himself
is the place where God dwells, and we, in the measure that we are
grafted on to him, are temples of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is passing
judgment on all of the inadequate, corrupt forms of human religion and
is establishing the new and
eternal covenant, the new temple, in his own person.
Friday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 501
I, John, heard a voice from heaven speak to me.
Then the voice spoke to me and said:
"Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel
who is standing on the sea and on the land."
So I went up to the angel and told him to give me the small scroll.
He said to me, "Take and swallow it.
It will turn your stomach sour,
but in your mouth it will taste as sweet as honey."
I took the small scroll from the angel's hand and swallowed it.
In my mouth it was like sweet honey,
but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.
Then someone said to me, "You must prophesy again
about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings."
Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out
those who were selling things, saying to them,
“It is written,
My house shall be a house of prayer,
but you have made it a den of thieves.”And every day he was teaching in the temple area.
The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile,
were seeking to put him to death,
but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose
because all the people were hanging on his words.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment