>>St. Maximilian of Rome (3rd century)
Maximilian was the son of a Roman army veteran. When he was drafted by the military, he refused to serve on the grounds that his faith prohibited it. He was beheaded.
>>Father David Daly, LC
Listen to podcast version here.
John 2:13-25
Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the Temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the moneychangers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father´s house a marketplace.” His disciples recalled the words of scripture, Zeal for your house will consume me. At this the Jews answered and said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews said, “This Temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the scripture and the word Jesus had spoken. While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, many began to believe in his name when they saw the signs he was doing. But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all, and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well.
Introductory Prayer: Lord Jesus, I believe in your Incarnation: that you came to teach us, suffer for us and show us the way home to heaven. I trust in your utter goodness and mercy and am confident that you are leading me always. I love you and wish to make you known to many others, so they can be filled with the peace and joy that only you can give. Here I am now, ready and longing to encounter you through this meditation.
Petition: Lord, purify me!
1. “Zeal for Your House Will Consume Me.” When they witnessed Jesus cleansing the Temple, the apostles remembered the words from Psalm 69: “It is zeal for your house that has consumed me” (Psalm 69:9). Through his zeal — his passionate love for God’s house — Jesus fulfills the words from the Old Testament. He takes possession of his own house, the Temple, and he evicts all of those who are making it a place of commerce. In doing so Christ teaches us that our faith must also be pure from all selfish, pragmatic concerns. We must be purified to grow in our friendship with Christ.
2. Destroy This Temple: Jesus’ teachings about the Temple also show us the path to interior purification: the Paschal Mystery. He refers to his death and resurrection when he says, “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up.” Not only does he fulfill the Old Testament in this Gospel passage, but he also gives us the example and the key to our own purification: We must die to ourselves in order to have life! We must cast out the concerns and “commerce” that dominate our hearts and minds even during times of prayer. Only through purification can we can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.
3. Jesus Knows: Jesus does not need anyone to tell him about human nature. He knows it well. He knows how hard it is to break away from what is merely human and to elevate all we do to a spiritual level. When he was on earth, he experienced the struggle and the temptations we face. Through his unfailing example he taught us how to live. He taught us to be radical in choosing God in our lives and courageous in putting him first. We need to put him first in our work, family and personal lives. When we can put God first, then we can truly be temples of the Holy Spirit.
Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus, you know how we become weighed down with mere human concerns; yet you desire much more for us. Help me to follow your example and be radical in my interior life. Give me the strength to put you above all other worries and concerns.
Resolution: Lord, today I will weigh what really is first in my life against what ought to be first in my life, and I will take a specific step to reestablish the proper order.
>>Jesus “made a [kind of] whip of cords and drove sheep and oxen alike out of the temple area.” –John 2:15
By cleansing the temple, Jesus may have proclaimed that the animal sacrifices of the old law were no longer necessary. This would be a shocking revelation, because animal sacrifice was called for in Leviticus and was the heart of Jewish worship. When He cleansed the temple, Jesus may have been saying He was above the Scriptures, tradition, and the Temple. He may have been saying that He was God.
The obvious response to Jesus’ seemingly blasphemous action was to either stone Him or ask for a sign showing His authority to do such a thing, which would show that He was God. Jesus gave such a sign, declaring that the Temple of His body would be destroyed and then raised up on the third day (Jn 2:19).
When Jesus’ body was destroyed on Calvary, He made the once-and-for-all perfect sacrifice that atoned for all sin and made animal sacrifice obsolete (Heb 10:14, 18). When Jesus rose from the dead, He showed He was God, for only God has power over death (see Jn 5:21). Only God has the power to go beyond His revelation in Leviticus and His divinely revealed tradition.
When Jesus cleansed the Temple, He was not destroying property but prefiguring the obsolescence of animal sacrifice – the heart of Jewish worship. Only God could do that. Therefore, Jesus would have to be crucified as a blasphemer unless He actually was God. If He was God, and was still crucified, then He would have to rise from the dead. Jesus rose. He is God. Amen!
PRAYER: Father, may my obedience to Jesus be so radical as to be understandable to others only if they believe Jesus is God.
PROMISE: “God’s folly is wiser than men.” –1 Cor 1:25
PRAISE: Praise Jesus, Whose love knows no bounds! Alleluia!
>>St. Aengus (9th century)
Aengus was a hermit in Ireland. Known to commune with angels, his holiness attracted so many followers that he retired to a monastery. Along with St. Maelruain, he wrote a martyrology of Irish saints.
St. John Vianney † (via joecatholic)
St. Padre Pio † (via joecatholic)
>>“He made him lord of his house and ruler of all his possessions.” –Psalm 105:21
After Jesus fasted for forty days in the desert, He “returned in the power of the Spirit” (Lk 4:14). Likewise, we will emerge from this Lenten fast as great men and women of God, “filled with faith and the Holy Spirit” (Acts 6:5), but only if we accept God’s grace to forgive those who have hurt us.
Joseph became one of the greatest people in history and one of the most powerful men in the world, but he first had to forgive his brothers for planning to murder him and for eventually selling him into slavery (Gn 37:20, 28). Jesus, the Greatest of all, God Himself, was the Stone rejected by the builders (Mt 21:42). Jesus was rejected so viciously that He was nailed to a cross. There He prayed: “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23:34). The greatest people are the greatest forgivers.
Forgiveness is one of the major graces given in our fasting. Forgiveness is the road to greatness, the way of the cross, the vocation of every person. Forgive and be great.
PRAYER: Father, may I forgive as Jesus forgave when He hung upon His cross.
PROMISE: “The Stone Which the builders rejected has become the Keystone of the structure. It was the Lord Who did this and we find it marvelous to behold.” –Mt 21:42; Ps 118:22-23
PRAISE: St. Frances wrote that sometimes, as a housewife, she must leave God at the altar to find Him in her housekeeping.
>>A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for Sunday, March 11, 2012, the Third Sunday of Lent | Carl E. Olson
Readings:
• Ex 20:1-17
• Ps 19:8, 9, 10, 11
• 1 Cor 1:22-25
• Jn 2:13-25Parish bulletins are not usually memorable. But at least one is stuck in my memory banks. Several years ago, visiting a parish, I was surprised to read a pointed message from the pastor in the bulletin. After lamenting several moral failings within the parish, the priest wrote (and I paraphrase): “And so I have concluded that everyone could use a refresher course in how to live as a Christian should.” And then he listed the Ten Commandments.
Is it fair to say we hear about the Ten Commandments far more often than we hear or read the actual commandments? I think so. Thankfully, we get to hear them in today’s Old Testament reading. There were, of course, hundreds of other commandments given by God to Moses at Mount Sinai. But the Decalogue—the “ten words”—form the moral heart of the Mosaic covenant and the Law.
The historical background and spiritual context for the commandments was the liberation of the Israelites from four hundred years of slavery in Egypt. Together, the commandments described and prescribed “the conditions of a life freed from the slavery of sin” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, par 2057). But the commandments were not to be followed out of mere fear or in a state of blind subjection. Yes, God stated that he is a “jealous God” who punishes wickedness, but he also made it known that he bestows mercy “on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Far from being a distant God without care or concern, the one true God is active and involved in human history; he is a Creator who loves his creation.
The love and obedience due to God are to be demonstrated by man through holiness and worship—that is, through right relationships with other men and with God. The establishment of the Sabbath was unique. No other people of the ancient world had anything like it. They measured time based on lunar phases and the solar cycle, but the Sabbath is not based on the sun, moon, or stars. Its creation is rooted in the seven days of creation and points to the Creator outside of time and beyond nature—the One who created both time and nature.
For first century Jews, the Temple in Jerusalem was God’s dwelling place on earth, the house of the Creator and the embodiment of God’s covenant with King David (cf. 2 Sam 7:8-16). It was where sacrifices were made for the atonement of sins. But during the time of Christ it was also the home of a lucrative system of money changing and the selling of animals to pilgrims who came to offer sacrifices during Passover and other feasts. There were fees for changing currency and for having the to-be-sacrificed animals inspected and confirmed as pure and unblemished according to the Law. Price gauging was common. The house of God had become, in many ways, a supermarket and a “den of robbers” (Jer 7:11).
The actions of Jesus are shocking, even violent. But it is the righteous violence of love, the zealous passion of a Son for his Father’s house. Such love cannot give sin free reign or allow impurity to go unchallenged. Casting out the moneychangers, St. John Chrysostom wrote, was not “the actions of a pretender but of one choosing to suffer everything for the order of the house.”
In fact, Jesus’ actions in the Temple were part of the announcement, initially cryptic but clear in hindsight, of His death and Resurrection. He is “the true temple of God” (CCC, par 1197), and he came to establish a new law, a new covenant, and a new household. This was, Paul told the Corinthians (in today’s Epistle), a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.
Jesus is the only one able to drive sin and impurity out of our souls, making us holy temples. Who better to show us how to live as a Christian—a disciple of Christ—with love and obedience?
(This “Opening the Word” column originally appeared in the March 15, 2009, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)
[http://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/2012/03/third-sunday-of-lent.html]
