Fr. Nick Dant’s Homily, Saint Matthew Catholic Church, Indianapolis
Third Sunday of Lent, March 7-8, 2015
In our first scripture reading from the Old Testament book of Exodus, we hear God through Moses spell
out for the ancient Hebrews what we have come to call the Ten Commandments. The Old Testament
itself calls these ten commands of God the Decalogue, or Ten Words. There is no question about the
centrality of the Ten Commandments to both Judaism and Christianity. In the ancient world of the late
1950s and early 1960s I can remember having to learn the Ten Commandments by heart. I am sure
many of you around my age, and also having gone to parochial school, can recall learning the Ten
Commandments by memory also. However, as central as the Ten Commandments are to the faith of
Jews and Christians, the Decalogue is not the end of our moral obligations but only the beginning of our
call to love God with our whole being and our neighbor as ourselves.
Jesus calls on his followers to go beyond the rote fulfillment of commandments. He challenges us
further with eight Beatitudes that call for a real conversion of heart. It is Jesus’ deep desire for us to get
beyond rote observance of the law that drives Him in the cleansing of the Temple--our Gospel story for
this 3rd Sunday of Lent!
We Jews and Christians believe that the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, come from the very
mouth of God. There are also other Jewish laws from the Old Testament governing the Temple’s
operations and the sacrificial offerings, and the Old Testament reveals that the Temple laws also come
from God, but in the practice of these Temple laws Jesus perceives something is lacking! So, Jesus tells
those who are selling oxen, sheep, and doves: “Take these out of here! Stop making my Father’s House a
marketplace!” Jesus drives the merchants and money changers out, overturning their money tables.
But these merchants and money changers were doing nothing ostensibly wrong according to the Temple
laws! The law allowed them to be in the Temple courtyard to sell animals for sacrifices and to exchange
people’s Roman coins for the Jewish shekel, by which they could pay the temple tax. What did Jesus
perceive was lacking in their response to observing the law that drove him into the anger He displayed?
What was lacking?
Perhaps, Jesus perceived that these people were observing what the law permits, but their hearts did
not go beyond the pursuit of everyday commerce and making money. No one was really interested in
what God’s law is all about--love of God and love of neighbor! Jesus objected to the desecration of the
Holy Temple by a marketplace mentality!
Jesus goes further, and this is very telling! Jesus identifies his body, his very self as the true Temple of
God. “I will destroy this Temple and raise it in three days.” The presence of God dwelt in Jesus. And, as
Paul the Apostle makes clear we too are the true Temple of God, because the very presence of God
dwells in us from Baptism.
Just as Jesus cleansed the Jerusalem Temple, during Lent we allow Jesus in to run through the Temples
of our very selves, overturning the money changers’ tables and closing out all that takes first place in our
lives, rather than true love of God, and true love of neighbor--the very heart of God’s law!