NOTE: For the Third Sunday of Lent the Catholic Liturgy gives us two options for the Liturgy of the Word. One is the Gospel of Jesus cleansing the Temple. The other is the Gospel of the Samaritan Woman at the Well. The following homily is for those who wish to reflect upon the Gospel of the Cleansing of the Temple.
Catholic Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Lent, March 7, 2021. Gospel of St. John 2:13-25. Theme: The 3 R’s: Rules, Religion, Relationships
Today’s Gospel has caused me to really reflect upon what we have all been going through for the past year in regards to the meaning and purpose of our church buildings. We see Jesus stand up very vigorously for the proper respect for - and use of - the temple of God in Jerusalem. But we also hear him talking about another temple, that of his body, which brings to mind the teaching of the New Testament that all of us Christians are temples of God, living stones who make up a living Church. It seems to me that we have been experiencing both of these forms of God’s temple these many past months.
Jesus starts out by passionately teaching us, by both word and actions, that the temple made of stone and mortar is a holy place, a house of prayer, a point of conscious contact with God. The history of the Jewish people and the experiences of us today clearly point out that a sacred building is not strictly necessary for the worship of God. But this does not mean that a physical sacred space is optional. If it was, Jesus would have had a very different attitude towards the Jerusalem temple. He could have used the occasion we witness in today’s Gospel as an opportunity to teach the people to worship God as they saw fit, in wherever way or place they might find most meaningful to them. But he doesn’t do that. Instead, he is filled with righteous anger that the House of God has become a means of robbing the people of their spiritual birthright and that the people’s devotion expressed in temple worship was being abused by those in leadership positions.
We have seen and experienced a similar dynamic in our own lives with the coronavirus driven restrictions placed upon us by both church and civil leaders. Using highly questionable reasons and scientifically-debatable data, they chose to instill fear in us, disrupt our usual religious observances and closed our churches. At times, even people who came in good and simple faith to pray before the Presence of the Lord in the holiness of his house were often chased away or treated in an unwelcome manner. And then when we chose to gather as the living stones of a living Church to worship at the Eucharist outdoors, these same church and civic leaders enacted burdensome and at times even conflicting rules, placing before us various hoops to jump through if we wanted to participate in public worship.
And yet, the Jewish people in their simple faith, and knowing that they were being mistreated, still came to the temple because their focus was on the Lord their God and not on his ministers and leaders. Their hearts were hearts open to worship and their outward devotion was expressed to the best of their abilities. And so today, like them, we still come to stand or kneel outdoors with our hearts focused on Christ present among us, in both the reality of the Holy Eucharist and in the assembly of his Living Stones. No one and nothing, not even bad weather, can stop us from gathering because we too, like our Jewish ancestors in faith, have hearts that burn to worship the Lord our God and our devotion, like theirs, is carried out to the best of our abilities.
So, what might the Lord be telling us today in this Gospel of the Temple? I can think of two things that come immediately to mind. First, the rules and regulations of our church and civic leadership have been turned by God to our good, because they have served to show us how much we truly value, honor and desire to worship in the sacred space that is our parish church. Second, the words and actions of Jesus in cleansing the temple teach us that an over-emphasis on rules is a danger that tempts those in authority, even in church leadership, to abuse their power and over-exaggerate the scope of their position. But Christianity rejects these things and teaches a religion that is first of all rooted in relationships, not in focusing on rules and regulations.
Religion as relationship opens wide the door of our hearts to God. Religion as relationship opens wide the doors of God’s heart to us. Religion as relationship does not see authority as something to be used to manipulate and control others, but sees leadership as humble service to the needs of God’s people. Religion as relationship treats the stone-and-mortar temple of God as a House of Prayer, but it venerates with profound respect the Presence of the Living God dwelling within the Living Stones that are his people, whom he cherishes with all his heart.
No comments:
Post a Comment