Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Lent, March 3, 2024. Gospel of St. John 2:13-25. Theme: Cleansing Our Temples
In today’s Gospel we see that Jesus, like tens of thousands of other Jews, has come to the Holy City of Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, the greatest of all holy days in the Jewish Liturgical Year. You see, every Jewish family that was able to make this pilgrimage was obligated to offer an animal to the priests of the Temple as a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. But since the pilgrims came from long distances it was impractical to bring animals with them so they needed to buy them once they arrived in the Holy City. And since they came from all over the Roman Empire, their money had to be exchanged for acceptable local currency. So, they became a captive market for both the animal merchants and the bankers, providing both groups with a lucrative business opportunity!
The vast majority of the pilgrims were poor but they had carefully set aside whatever they could spare, sometimes for years, in order to fulfill their religious duty and make this special journey. However, their precious funds were quickly used up due to inflated exchange rates and exorbitant animal purchase prices. Their sincere piety and religious devotion made them easy prey for the buyers and the sellers of the Temple. It might help us better appreciate their predicament by putting it into a scenario we can relate to as Catholics.
Imagine for a moment that you arrive at the parish for Christmas or Easter Mass and there are "sacramental merchants" all set up in the plaza in front of the church. They inform you that if you would like to receive Holy Communion you’ll need to buy a host and since Holy Communion is at the heart of your worship you go ahead and make the purchase. But because the sellers have a captive market, the price soars to $10 a host instead of its value of less than a penny! Then, after you make your way through the front doors you encounter "missalette merchants" selling worship aids and song books in the vestibule. So you fork over some more cash and then begin to look for a seat. That’s when the ushers rush up and inform you that you can stand in the back for free or purchase a seat in a pew. Get the idea? God’s House had become a den of greed and was being used to take advantage of their religious observances.
It was this abuse of faith and of the poor that made righteous anger swell up within the heart of Jesus. He acted with a whirlwind of zeal for the glory of His Father and marched straight to the check-out desks with a whip in hand. He flipped over the tables and coins jingled and rolled all over the floor. Dove cages toppled. Feathers flew in the air. And the noise of frightened farm animals echoed off the walls. The Gospel tells us that the Lord’s motivation for this reaction is found in the Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah which said, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
The temple-cleansing that Christ carried out was not only a condemnation of corrupt religion, but it also speaks to the corruption of religion in a way that strikes much closer to home. The cleansing of the Temple should remind us that we ourselves have become temples of God by Baptism and that we, too, stand in need of purification. We need to ask ourselves if zeal for God’s House, which we are, consumes us as it consumed Jesus? Zeal means a burning motivation or a dynamic desire and so I think this Gospel ask us to consider if we are willing to be like Jesus and cast out the merchants of sin and the money-changers of selfishness, so to speak, that we have allowed to invade our temples, lessening our dignity and spiritual beauty as God’s dwelling places.
Like the buyers and the sellers in the temple, have we given other things and priorities the primacy of place that rightfully belongs to God? Have we overextended ourselves and our daily schedules to such a degree that we have little to no time remaining for prayer, or spiritual reading or service to those in need? Have we allowed things into the temple of our lives that diminish God’s Presence within us or work against our growing in true religious devotion? Perhaps there are sinful behaviors or negative tendencies that we have always known needed to go, but have put off doing so? Maybe there are resentments that need to be healed or grudges that need the cleansing power of forgiveness so that God’s Presence can more fully shine through us? And if our missteps have been serious, have we brought these things to Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation so that we can be put back into a right relationship with God and others?
During Lent the liturgy intentionally places today’s Gospel before us so that we might be encouraged to open up our hearts to the cleansing action of Jesus Christ. Lent is a time for us to be zealous and eager to overturn the tables of sin and chase out the merchants of selfishness that we have allowed to set up shop within us. It’s a time to be dramatic and decisive in becoming more serious about our relationship with Christ, allowing Him to purify us and restore us so that we can shine once again as holy temples of God and ultimately receive His Easter gift of resurrection and eternal life.
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