Readings: Ex 20:1-17; Ps 18:8-11; 1 Cor 1:22-25; Jn 2:13-25
Theme: THE LAW OF GOD GUARANTEES THE GLORY OF HIS TEMPLE
Dearest friends, I welcome us to the third week of Lent. The readings today present to us the Law as the building and cleansing factor for the temple of God which we are.
- THE LAW OF GOD BUILDS US INTO HIS TEMPLE
A people or a tribe or a family etc is differentiated from another by the way they live and do their things. Every nation or family has its own values which every of her member is expected to live up to. This is why people can comfortably say, “he/she does not behave like our member”. When one joins a group or a society, he/she is given some kind of Rules and Regulations that distinguish the members of that group or society. In putting some limitations and checks on the members, these Rules and Regulations aim majorly at building the members one group that have respect for their common values.
Israel was one of the nations surrounded by other Ancient Near Eastern nations. Each of these nations had their own gods and their lifestyles. What differentiates one nation from another apart from their culture (e.g the Philistines eat pork while Israel does not), religion and sometimes language, include the way the people live, their values, their “Dos” and “Don’ts”.
A people is never completely common and united until they have some rules that differentiate them, and these rules must flow from their god, or at least, have the God’s approval. When God acquired Israel for himself by delivering her from the mighty hands of the Egyptians, in order to mark the people different from other nations around them, they needed some kind of regulations that would guide their relationship both with God and their fellow countrymen. Anyone who becomes member of God’s community, must live according to the Law of God to his people.
God’s Law build the people into one temple of God where God dwells.
Temple is wherever God can comfortably dwell. Subsequently, we will see that what determines the presence or the absence of God among his people is their ability to live up to the Law which makes them a nation of God.
Hence, the Law of God guarantees the people as the temple, the continuous presence of God in their midst. When the people deviate from the Law of God, even though they may still be temple, but it will be a temple without the glory of God, an ichabodic temple (1 Sam 4:21). We have been built as the temple, but our keeping of God’s Law makes us a particular people dedicated to and owned by God. When the Law of God is kept, his glory radiates in us.
It is interesting to see how God first of all presents the obligation of his people to him, and then after that comes the obligation they owe to one another. This sequence is important because unless we learn how to love and respect God, we cannot love and respect one another.
Our obligation to God inspires and motivates us to respect our obligation to one another. There can never be an authentic human relationship without building first an authentic relationship with God.
The Law of God builds us into the temple of God which has to be kept clean. The best place where an encounter between us and God take places in ourselves, not just in our souls but in our bodies also. We are individually a complete and dedicated temple of God. Whatever we allow on our bodies has an influence on our souls.
In the gospel reading, we see Jesus cleansing the temple, the living abode of his Father, and reminding the people that it is forbidden to make a mess of God’s temple. During the feast of Passover, many people even from diaspora make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem temple. Many come to offer sacrifices. And because they are coming from afar, they cannot carry the things they would use for sacrifice from home.
Hence, the best thing is to come with money and buy from the shop owners in Jerusalem. In the scene, we also see money changers who were doing money exchange for foreigners. Hence, these people were really doing a nice job for the pilgrims. Jesus has no problem with their business but with where they are doing the business.
The question is, “where was the buying and selling happening?” In the Jerusalem temple, there are two parts: the inner part for the Jews, and the porch for the gentiles who were/are not allowed to enter into the part reserved for the Jews in order not to defile them. These businessmen respected the inner part because they believed that is the most important part of the temple where the encounter with God takes place. So, they were using the porch, the outer part of the temple for their business.
Jesus therefore teaches them that there is no part of God’s temple which is not sacred and important. All the parts of the temple come together to make a complete temple, the abode of God.
Dearest friend, you are completely built into the temple of God. Everything about you harbors the glory of God. There is no part of you that belongs to God and the other part left open for people to do as they wish. Your body is as sacred as your soul because whatever happens in the body brings an influence and a change in the soul. In possessing you, God does not make a reservation, he takes all and occupies in all. Hence, do not allow any form of business in any part of you, no matter how important it might be, and no matter from whom it may come.
You are meant to be a house of prayer and not a business mall. A house of prayer means where people come to meet and experience God. Allow people who approach you to perceive this aroma of divine presence. Even in our daily preoccupations and occupations, we must always remember that we are the prayer house built by God.
We must be always awake to notice when we are shifting from being this glorious temple of God to a business mall where people do all sorts of illegal shopping and money laundering. We must also not be businessmen in other people, thereby using people for our impure acts, defiling the temple of God which they are.
Remember that we have the Law of God to assist us keep God’s temple holy and prayerful. But whenever we defile this temple, we have Jesus who is ever there to cleanse us and cast out every element of human marketing and illegal businesses in us.
Fr. Nnamah Henry Chukwuezugo
Catholic Diocese of Aguleri
Can’t be less beautiful
Thank you so much, God bless you, dear