My Body the Temple of God: Ex 20:1-17;1 Cor 1:22-25; Jn 2:13-25

 

My Body the Temple of God

Ex 20:1-17;1 Cor 1:22-25; Jn 2:13-25 (B Lent 3)

Healer of souls and bodies, mend our broken lives (DO) 

Jesus was angry in the Jerusalem temple. The synoptic writers report the historical words of Jesus in the temple slightly different from one another. Matthew says, “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers” (Mt 21:13). Mark reports, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations, but you have made it a den of robbers (Mk 11:17). Luke narrates, “My house shall be a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of robbers” (Lk 19:46). But John has spiritual words, “Take these things away; you shall not make my Father’s house a house of trade” (Jn 2:16). Jesus got angry because people had turned the temple into an abomination, a marketplace selling animals and exchanging money instead of respecting it a place to worship. And priests wanted a sign from him. Instead of replying them Jesus told them to destroy the Temple and in three days he would rebuild it. He was not speaking of the physical temple but spoke about his body indicating the end of the old covenant and its forms of worship.  The new covenant is in Jesus’ body and the new worship.

There were at least three reasons why Jesus was angry with the merchants in the temple. Because God's house was being desecrated without reverence. Secondly, Jesus wanted to show that the animal sacrifice was completely irrelevant, “I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.... Bring no more vain offerings” (Is 1:11-17). Thirdly, a Gentile could not mediate and pray to God. The conduct of the campus of Gentile in the Temple shut out for Gentile from the presence of God, “My house shall be called the house of prayer for all the nations”. Jesus was moved to the depths of his heart because God seeking people were being shut out from the presence of God.

The season of Lent provides us a unique opportunity to look inward, and cleanse our own temple, so that Jesus can dwell within us. If we want to receive the gift of eternal life, it’s important that we consciously reflect on and ask forgiveness for the thoughts, words and actions that deface the temple of our souls. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton recognized the power of God’s forgiveness. Upon confessing her sins as a Catholic for the first time, she wrote: “How awful are those words of unloosing after a thirty years’ bondage! I felt as if my chains fell, as those of St. Peter at the touch of the Divine Messenger. My God! What new scenes for my soul!”

The words of absolution brought light to darkness, healing to pain, freedom from the chains of sin. Most importantly, Mother Seton knew that in the sacrament of Reconciliation, Jesus sees our hearts longing to be in relation with him. He cleanses and rebuilds the temples of our souls with love and mercy.

 One way this can be accomplished, during Lent, is by the examination of conscience based on the Ten Commandments before receiving the sacrament of Reconciliation. Is there anything in our church life--a snobbishness, an exclusiveness, a coldness, a lack of welcome, a tendency to make the congregation into a closed club, an arrogance, a fastidiousness that keeps the seeking stranger out? Let us remember the wrath of Jesus against those who made it difficult and even impossible for the seeking stranger to make contact with God.

St Paul tells us that our bodies are temples of God. Jesus enters there and performs the work of cleansing and perfecting us. Certainly, it is true that we cannot please God if we praise him with our lips alone while our heart and mind are far from him. Prayers and devotions will become fruitful if we do what God wants us to do.

“Christ, our life, we were buried with you in baptism to rise from the dead”