3 Lent
A NEW TEMPLE
José Antonio Pagola
The four Gospel writers recall Jesus’ provocative gesture of expelling the «sellers» and the «moneychangers» from the temple. He can’t stomach seeing his Father’s house full of people who make
their living from religion. You can’t buy God with “sacrifices”.
But John, the last Gospel writer, adds a dialogue with the Jews in which Jesus solemnly affirms that
after the temple is destroyed, he «will raise it up again in three days». No one can understand what
he says. That’s why the Gospel writer adds: «Jesus was speaking of the Temple that was his body».
Let us not forget that John is writing his Gospel when the temple of Jerusalem had lain destroyed
for twenty or thirty years. Many Jews feel themselves orphans. The temple was the heart of their
religion. How could they survive without God’s presence in their midst?
The Gospel writer reminds Jesus’ followers that they don’t need to feel nostalgia for the old temple.
Jesus, himself «destroyed» by the religious authorities but «raised up» by the Father, is the «new
temple». This is not a daring metaphor. It is a reality that must forever mark the relationship we
Christians have with God.
For those who see in Jesus the new temple where God lives, all is changed. In order to meet God, it
isn’t enough to go into a Church. It’s necessary to come close to Jesus, enter into his project, follow
his steps, live with his spirit.
In this new temple that is Jesus, in order to adore God it isn’t enough to use incense, acclamations,
or solemn liturgies. The true adorers are those who live before God «in spirit and in truth». True
adoration consists in living with the «Spirit» of Jesus in the “Truth” of the Gospel. Without this, any
cult is “empty worship”.
The doors of this new temple that is Jesus are open to everyone. No one is excluded. Able to enter
into him are the sinners, the unclean, even the pagans. The God who lives in Jesus is of all and for
all. In this temple no discrimination is made. There are no separate spaces for men and for women.
In Christ now «there is no male and female». There are not chosen races or excluded peoples. The
only ones preferred are those needing love and life. We need churches and temples in order to
celebrate Jesus as Lord, but he is our true temple.
Third Sunday of Lent - Cycle B - John 2:13-25
A priest was a master playing good cop-bad cop in his high school teaching career. In the morning,
as a professor he would berate a student who was not working up to his potential. But at 3 PM he
would be waiting at the exit to catch the boy and play good cop. He would find out why the student
was not producing. Ironically he ended his career as chaplain for the New York Police Department.
Jesus Himself used the good cop-bad cop routine.
Christ arrives in Jerusalem for the Passover. The action center was the great Temple. It was one of
the world's wonders. The Michelin tourist books had it down on the must-see A list. When the
Teacher walked in that day, it was under construction for almost half a century and at the cost of
mega millions. To gain admission into the Temple one had to pay half a shekel. That was a big sum
amounting to two day's wages.
That amount did not bother Jesus. He felt that gifts are owed to His Father. He has been so generous
to us. Unlike us, most Jews long had and still have the habit of returning a tenth of their income to
God. Anything less they consider an insult to God or just a tip. Who needs God as an enemy?
What did disturb Jesus that day and prompt his bad cop- good cop routine? Well, if you were a Jew
coming for the Passover from Rome, your money would be in liras. They were unacceptable at the
Temple. So, you had to convert them into shekels with the Temple money changers.
They would take you to the cleaners. There was nothing you could do about it. The bankers in this
context were bandits. This was theft in the name of religion. The problem for them was that Jesus
was always an advocate for the underdog. John tells us today in graphic language what happened.
The next best thing to John's prose is the sixteenth century El Greco's magnificent painting of this
scene in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. See it before you die. This story sheds important
light on the character of Christ. He had a low boiling point. He did not hesitate to resort to physical
violence at the sight of people being abused. This image is far different from the nerdy Jesus
greeting card clerks sell us at three dollars each. You may be cringing right about now and saying,
"Hey, that's an angry Jesus you're painting.
I don't want any part of Him." Well, relax. That is only half the story. That is Jesus the bad cop.
Now let's check Him as the good cop. Turn to Matthew's account of this story (21:12-14). There
Jesus after driving all the thieves out of the Temple is standing out of breath and in a sweat with his
homemade whip in hand. At that point, all the great unwashed and the walking wounded rush up to
Him. Some walk on their ankles.
Matthew says in a masterpiece of understatement, "He healed them." There is Jesus the good cop.
Those who needed Him saw no reason to get out of His way. Quite the contrary. They ran to Him
for help and once again He delivered. There are more than one billion Christians in the world. We
should be having a significant impact on the society all about us. That impact should especially be
for the underdog whether it be the unborn babe, the abused child, the battered wife or husband, the
woman in the soup kitchen, the fellow with AIDS, and so on.
What a different society it would be if each of us did something every day for someone weaker than
ourselves. "How wonderful it is," wrote Anne Frank, "that nobody need wait a single moment
before starting to improve the world." In fact, though, the majority of us blend into the landscape.
Contemporary culture has a dreadful effect on us. Perhaps today's Gospel will motivate us to work
for others. It certainly did that for a South African headmaster. He quit his post at a posh prep
school rather than submit to the school's apartheid policy. Friends told him he was deranged.
He replied, "When I meet God, He will ask me, `Where are your wounds?' If I reply I haven't any,
He may inquire, `Wasn't there anything worth fighting for?' I couldn't face that question." It is up to
us to determine whether Christ is a forceful person in our lives or just a figure in an Eastern mystery
play. The monk tells us to live the Christian life completely so that the priest will not have to tell
lies at our funeral.
Third Sunday of Lent: The Wisdom of the Cross
This Sunday’s gospel put Jesus' knowledge of our human nature so clearly: He really knew what
was going on in men's hearts. He knew what they thought. He saw what they did to the Temple. The
Temple was a place of worship. It was a place of celebrating the spiritual presence of God in the
world. And they transformed it. They changed the Temple into a marketplace. They utilized a
system of money changing that robbed the poor people, forcing them to spend extra money for the
prescribed practices. He knew men's hearts. He knows our hearts. He knew that our celebration of
his birth at Christmas would be transformed from a day to celebrate the Spiritual Becoming One
with Us to a celebration of materialism.
He knew that we would hide the celebration of the Resurrection behind the Easter Bunny. He even
knew that some people would begin their Easter celebrations two days early and have a party on
Good Friday (That, to me, is the height of paganism.) He knew that people would see the signs that
he worked, the miracles he performed, but would refuse to see the messages behind the signs and
the miracles. Instead they would see him as a wonder worker, a super man, a good show. He knew
that they would not recognize whom he really was. Nor were they ready to listen to his message.
Those who followed the way of the world could never accept sacrificial love, a death on a cross, as
the way to salvation. He would show us what real love was. He would die on a cross for us. For
God had entrusted creation to man from the very beginning. He would not take this gift back. If
mankind had broken the relationship with God, then mankind would have to make the decision to
once more seek this relationship. One who is a man would have to restore the relationship. The
man, the Son of God become flesh, would give himself up completely for the sake of others.
His death would make God's life real to the world. The cross did not make sense to the Jews who
wanted signs, wonders, a superman, a triumphant messiah. The cross didn't make sense to the
Gentiles whose philosophers and sophists could not understand the wisdom of Christ's sacrifice.
But, as St. Paul writes, "We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews, an absurdity to
the Gentiles, but to all those who are called, Jews and Gentiles alike, Christ is the power of God and
the wisdom of God.
For God's folly is wiser than men, and his weakness more powerful than men.” The particular
temple that Jesus entered was the third temple, the glorious Temple. The Temple of Solomon had
been destroyed during the Babylonian Captivity in the 6th century BC. The temple that replaced it
after the captivity was nowhere near as glorious as Solomon's. When the Temple of Herod was
constructed at the beginning of Jesus' life it was a wonder of the world.
Remember Jesus gazing on the temple as the disciples looked at it with their mouths open. But no
matter how powerful, how strong the new temple looked, it was insignificant. It could be and it
would be destroyed. The Romans would tear it apart in the year 70 AD to such an extent that the
only portion left then, and still existing now, is the Wailing Wall. But Christ's presence would never
be removed from the world. His love is eternal.
He is always here with us. During Lent we celebrate our ability to live Christ's life. We are called
upon to consider how well we are following Christ's way, the way of sacrificial love. Our houses
may be destroyed in a natural disaster, but nothing can remove the love of Christ from our homes,
wherever we may be. The one thing that will last forever is the sacrificial love of the Lord we have
been enjoined to perpetuate in the world.
We must be willing to sacrifice ourselves for others, our families and our friends. We must be
willing to demonstrate with our own lives that Jesus' wisdom and strength, the wisdom and strength
of the cross, proves the lie of the materialistic mind set of the world. The wisdom of the cross
reveals all else to be folly and weakness.
New Mind and Heart Week 3 (March 8, 2015)
Message: Place yourself under the banner of the cross. Last week we asked God for spiritual sight a new mind and heart - so we can see reality as it is. Like the disciples at the Transfiguration, we
want to see inner reality of Jesus - and his cross as the central event in human history. If everything
did not become immediately clear to you, do not despair. Each day you and I need to ask God for
sight: Lord, open my eyes. Help me to see. Give me a new mind and heart.
This Sunday we ask for spiritual sight in order to address a difficult question. I am sure you have
heard it and maybe even asked it yourself: Why is there so much violence in the Bible? And in
today's Gospel we see Jesus himself committing an act of violence. He makes a whip out of chords
and uses it against sheep, cattle and human beings - overturning tables loaded with coins and
driving money changers out of the temple area. Why such violence? Since our Lord never sinned
we can assume his anger is justified, that some good outweighs the violence. We make a similar
assumption about the violence God ordains in the Old Testament. Although I have to admit, when I
first read the Bible through, I sometimes asked myself: What's going on here? To solve the puzzle
of violence in the Bible, I've been helped by commentaries.
But what has helped most are early Christian writers - men like Justin Martyr, Clement of
Alexandria and Augustine. They saw the biblical violence in relation to the spiritual battle. When
you look at the texts, most of the violence is against idolatry. As we hear today the first
commandment is, "I am the Lord your God...you shall not have other gods besides me." The first
and biggest sin is idolatry because it means we place some thing ahead of God, above God. It means
making a created thing more important than the Creator. Many people value their bed, their TV,
their leisure more than God. It would take a stick of dynamite get them out of bed to go to Mass.
But they will get up for a fishing trip.
We all know people who put sports or their career or some other person above God. They say, "I
don't bother God. Why should he bother me? Why can't he just leave me alone?" But God can't
leave you alone. If he sustains every quark and photon, he also sustains you and me. And more to
the point, he wants your happiness and mine. And he knows we can never be happy apart from him.
We need a new mind and heart to recognize God at work. He does sometimes use extreme measures
to get our attention. St. Paul speaks about going to an extreme - the cross.
That's what Paul proclaims: Christ crucified. Some preachers, he says, come with signs - fireworks.
And others come with wisdom - secret knowledge. But Paul preaches Christ crucified. The cross
has everything. It the mirror where we see who we are - how much we are loved and how much we
have gone wrong. Our sins placed Jesus on the cross. The cross brings true judgment, but it also
brings healing: Do you feel empty, confused, dispirited?
Go to the cross. Are you angry? Go to the cross. Do you feel hurt and cheated? Go to the cross. Are
you tempted to return insult for insult, violence for violence? Go to the cross. Do you want a new
mind and heart? Go to the cross. When someone tells you he doesn't believe in God, invite him to
the cross. I have a lot of sympathy with an honest atheist - with someone who rejects God not
because he wants to do his own thing, but because he feels God-forsaken.
I ask him to go to the cross with an open mind and ears. Hear Jesus say, "My God, my God, why
have you forsaken me?" You and I need a new mind and heart to see Jesus and his cross. We are in
spiritual combat. When soldiers go into battle, they follow a flag or banner. Are we going to follow
the banner of Christ and his cross or banner of Satan and his idols? This Sunday we have the first
Scrutiny - the first of three exorcism prayers leading up to the Holy Week.
Please join the Catechumens in placing yourself under the banner of the cross. The exorcism prayer
will help you have a new mind and heart. Here is part of the prayer: Protect them from vain reliance
on self and defend them from the power of Satan They open their hearts to you in faith... quench
their thirst and give them peace. Amen.
Third Sunday of Lent, Classic Sunday,
March 8, 2015 John 2: 13–25 Gospel Summary
Since the Passover was near, Jesus goes up to Jerusalem to celebrate the festival with his fellow
Jews. When he arrives at the temple area, he drives out those who were selling animals for sacrifice
as well as the money changers, saying, "Take these out of here, and stop making my Father's house
a marketplace.” When the temple authorities (the "Jews”) demanded a sign from Jesus for what he
had done, he said, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”
After Jesus was raised from the dead his disciples remembered what he had said. They realized he
was speaking of the temple of his body, and came to believe the Scripture and what he had spoken.
John adds that Jesus was able to recognize true belief in him because he could read the human heart.
Life Implications The idea of where one lives or dwells is perhaps the central theme of the fourth
gospel.
John begins his gospel by telling us that Jesus is the Word who became flesh and made his dwelling
among us. "In the beginning” the Word was dwelling with God, and the Word was God.
Immediately after his baptism in the Jordan, we hear the first words that Jesus speaks in the fourth
gospel. He sees two disciples of John the Baptist following him and says to them, "What are you
looking for?” They reply. "Rabbi, where are you staying?” Jesus replies, "Come, and you will see.”
(John 1: 38–39) We already are alerted to the fact that John's gospel is a gospel of incarnation.
Its essence is sacramental or symbolic: the extraordinary is actualized in the ordinary. The eternal
Word becomes present and is revealed by dwelling among us. Thus we realize that the disciples'
question about where Jesus is dwelling is not merely about a street address somewhere in Galilee.
When Jesus replies "Come, and you will see,” we realize he also means seeing with the eyes of
faith. When he speaks to his disciples, we realize he is also speaking to us. The astonishing good
news that Jesus reveals is that anyone who believes in him will dwell where he dwells, with the
Father.
John's gospel is the narrative of the signs that Jesus does so that those whom he encountered then,
and those who hear the gospel now might believe and have life in him (John 20: 31). John presents
various types of people who refuse to see the extraordinary through the signs, and also the beloved
disciples who do see and come to believe in Jesus. Today's gospel is a prophetic warning so that we
will not be like the temple authorities who do not see that Jesus is the one sent by God to dwell
among us in new ways.
Jesus' action in the temple is in the tradition of the prophets. They rebuked the people who thought
they were safe by coming to the temple while committing all sorts of abominations (Jeremiah 7).
Jesus, like the prophets before him, loved the temple, but he is warning us that even the most holy
created realities can become obstacles to believing in him and believing what he has spoken. The
temple truly was the dwelling place of the divine presence: the holy place of prayer and communion
with God. The temple authorities believed this, but they had narrowed their vision, and thus were
unable to see that Jesus himself was the new temple. He himself is the indestructible dwelling place
of the divine presence, of prayer and communion with God.
We can reduce the meaning of the Christian sacraments to suit our own purposes, and thus close our
eyes to other signs of the divine presence to which the sacraments point. For Catholics the most
holy sacrament of the Risen Lord's presence is the Bread of the Eucharist. It is possible to believe in
this sacramental divine presence and at the same time to ignore what Jesus has spoken to us of his
presence in the least of his brothers and sisters.
It might give us pause to note that the criterion of final judgement that Jesus tells us about is not
whether we recognize his presence in the Eucharist, but whether we respond with compassion to his
presence in the least of his brothers and sisters (Matthew 25: 31–46).
Third Sunday Exodus 20:1-17; Psalm 19; 1 Cor 1:22-25; John 2:13-25
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, It was with great anger born of reverence for his Father and zeal for
his glory that Christ confronted the desecration of the Temple. "And making a whip of cords, he
drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple." (Jn 2:15) "Like the prophets before him
Jesus expressed the deepest respect for the Temple in Jerusalem. It was in the Temple that Joseph
and Mary presented him forty days after his birth. (Lk 2:22-39)
At the age of twelve he decided to remain in the Temple to remind his parents that he must be about
his Father's business. He went there each year during his hidden life at least for Passover. (Cf. Lk
2:41) His public ministry itself was patterned by his pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the great Jewish
feasts. (Cf. Jn 2:13-14; 15:1, 14; 7:1, 10, 14; 8:2; 10:22-23)" (CCC 583) Greater by far is the
temple, not made by human hands, of our Lord's Body, of which he says, "Destroy this temple, and
in three days I will raise it up." The temple in Jerusalem as a sign of God is now far superceded by a
perfect temple. "I and the Father are one." (Jn 10:30) Yahweh now provides in the eternal Son the
perfect priest, altar and victim of the one Sacrifice.
The Creator is infinitely greater than his creatures. Far beyond the ability of mere creatures is the
worship due the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Lamb of God. Only in the Son can we
worship the Almighty in a fitting way. Now adopted by God in baptism we dare to call God
"Father" and to approach the Holy of Holies.
No mere monuments of cold lifeless stone are our "temples". Our churches are the authentic
descendants of the temple in Jerusalem. Each tabernacle housing the Body and Blood of the Lord is
a true "Ark of the Covenant". It is the presence of the living God himself who makes each church
and chapel a true temple, where we must bow down in awe before the all-holy God. "Jesus went up
to the Temple as the privileged place of encounter with God.
For him, the Temple was the dwelling of his Father, a house of prayer, and he was angered that its
outer court had become a place of commerce. (Cf. Mt 21:13) He drove merchants out of it because
of jealous love for his Father: 'You shall not make my Father's house a house of trade.' His disciples
remembered that it was written, 'Zeal for your house will consume me' (Jn 2:16-17; cf. Ps 69:10)
After his Resurrection his apostles retained their reverence for the Temple. (Cf. Acts 2:46; 3:1;
5:20, 21)" (CCC 584) "I will be with you always."
Because of Christ our churches today are indeed a "privileged place of encounter with God." Our
reverence for the temples of today should far outstrip the reverence of the apostles for the Jewish
temple. Peter and the Apostles have handed down to us through the true priesthood the living Christ
in the Eucharist, far greater than the manna, the treasured "show bread" kept hidden from view in
the Ark in the innermost court of the Temple.
Do we offer the reverential worship demanded of us by Christ's divinity as we stand in his presence
before the tabernacle? Do we mistake his silent presence for permission to ignore him? Do we
genuflect upon entering and prior to departing our churches? Do we genuflect in procession to
receive the living God? Do we struggle against the temptation to turn our churches into auditoriums,
rehearsal halls, or theaters?
Do we call attention to ourselves in needless conversation? We love God with our whole heart,
mind, soul and strength in our reverential love for Jesus Christ our Eucharistic Lord with our whole
heart, mind, soul and strength. "He who has seen me has seen the Father." (Jn 14:9) Like Christ, we
too must express the "deepest respect" for God. We worship the true temple, the Lamb of God, in
the Lord's Body and Blood.
Destroyed and risen again in three days, Christ himself present in the most august sacrament of the
Eucharist makes a mere church building the holiest place on earth. Preserve in church a reverent
silence for true prayer and authentic worship. Spend an hour today in the saving presence of the
Lord in the tabernacle. Volunteer for an hour per week if you have the privilege of perpetual
adoration in your community. Start a weekly period of adoration in your parish. "So, could you not
watch with me one hour?" (Mt 26: 40) I look forward to meeting you here again next week as,
together, we "meet Christ in the liturgy",
Third Sunday of Lent'
If you have a picture in your head of 'Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild' then today's Gospel ought to
make you get rid of it straight away. If you think of Jesus as some sort of namby-pamby figure then
I suggest you think again. Where this widespread idea comes from I do not know, but it certainly is
not in accord with what the scriptures tell us about Jesus. It is most likely a 19th Century invention
and probably comes from the sort of edifying pictures the Victorians thought were appropriate to
childhood nurseries in middle class households.
But this kind of image of a sweet and saccharine Jesus is really quite subversive and does true
religion no good whatever. What it does is turn our Divine Savior into a weak-minded do-gooder. It
strips him of his divinity and turns him into a kind of inoffensive romantic individual with a nice
sideline in miracles. This is not Jesus. This is not the Christ of the Gospels. This is not the Saviour
who died for us on Calvary. And this is certainly not the Christ who drove the money changers out
of the Temple. Catholic doctrine has from the earliest times taught that Jesus Christ is true God and
true man.
And if he is true man then he is a full person with all the emotions and all the moods and all the
feelings that constitute a real and authentic human being. So we should immediately put out of our
heads the meek and mild individual of the holy pictures in the nursery. It says in today's extract
from St John's Gospel, 'Zeal for your house will consume me.' To be consumed with zeal implies
someone who is firing on all cylinders. It implies someone who puts every ounce of energy into
their emotions and desires. As always, we can learn from Our Lord. And the lesson today surely is
that we should not be afraid of our emotions and we should feel free to give them appropriate
expression.
I suppose the one emotion most people are afraid of is anger. We don't like to be in the company of
angry people and like it even less when we ourselves are overwhelmed by what we perceive as the
most destructive of the emotions. Actually, I'm not sure that anger is the most destructive of the
emotions; I tend to think that jealousy is far worse. But as we say, there is a time and a place for
everything and what we see today in the Gospel is anger appropriately and justifiably expressed by
Jesus. The scene described by John misses out some important background information that might
help us to understand the reason for Jesus' anger. Because of the rules for ritual purity the people
could only make their offering to the Temple in Jewish currency and not in the money in ordinary
circulation. Hence the need for moneychangers who of course charged a hefty commission. And, no
doubt, licences to offer money changing in the Temple precincts cost a few bob payable to the
Temple authorities. Jesus was right; his Father's house had been turned into a den of thieves. And
anger was the appropriate response.
The key to Jesus' anger is to be found in the first reading. "I, the Lord, am your God, who brought
you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me." This
is the first and most important of the Ten Commandments. It forbids belief in false Gods or the
worship of idols. Now in those days this was understood in a very straightforward manner and
became institutionalised in the sacrifices offered in the Temple. But Jesus is not content with mere
outward conformity to the Law of God; what he wants is interior obedience, obedience of the heart.
These merchants are clearly serving not God but themselves. Their aim is not true worship of the
unseen God but the accumulation of money. And worse of all this involves the exploitation of the
poor and devout. This is what makes Jesus angry and leads him to clear them from the Temple. But
the direct consequence of the Cleansing of the Temple was Christ's arrest and death on the Cross.
Indeed in his remarks about destroying the temple and it being raised up in three days Jesus makes
it quite clear that he is fully aware of the consequences. It was this intervention into what they
regarded as their territory that upset the Temple authorities. From that moment they were
determined to do away with this 'usurper'. It was not Jesus' anger that was inappropriate it was the
anger of the Temple authorities that was totally out of place. These people who were supposed to be
guarding the faith of Israel against the worship of false Gods end up killing the very Son of God. If
this is not the greatest irony of all time then I don't know what is! Just going back to anger and how
to deal with it; as we have said anger or any other emotion can never be sinful in itself. It is the
thoughts and actions that flow from our emotions that can be destructive and therefore sinful. If we
experience anger or jealousy or any other strong and potentially destructive emotion we need to find
appropriate ways to express it without falling into sin. We need to release the emotion without
making things worse and this is not easily done.
Often when we experience strong emotions our judgment becomes clouded and we are then unable
to distinguish rights from wrongs. The key I suppose is not what we do when we are angry but what
we do when we are calm. That is not what we do in those few moments when we are filled with
strong emotions but what we do all the rest of the time when we are in a normal and steady frame of
mind. If we normally take the trouble to see the other person's point of view, if over a long period
we try to develop an inclination towards tranquility, if we consistently try to follow the teachings of
the Beatitudes in our ordinary lives then when we do fly off the handle our anger will be short lived
and we will be unlikely to do anything rash.
As it says at the end of our text today, "he never needed evidence about any man; he could tell what
a man had in him." From this we understand that Jesus knows all there is to know about human
nature. Perhaps it is us who still have a lot to learn.