Cleaning the Temple (Lent 3)

March 14th, 2009 Posted in writing

It wasn’t about the doves or the sheep or even the money as such, Jesus’ driving out the sellers from the Temple. It was about restoring the understanding of what the Temple was — a place where the people would meet God, reaffirm their covenant with God through ritual, and thus deepen their sense of being united with each other. Sadly, it had become a business. By cleaning out the Temple, Jesus wanted to let people recover their sense of what the Temple really was and their image if what it could be again.

What about us? I think all of us need to periodically renew our understanding that we are really children of God or brothers and sisters in God’s family. Then we can imagine what life would look like if we lived in the way God intended.

The Church, too, needs to do the same thing, all the way from the Vatican to the local parish. If it doesn’t do that with some regularity, it becomes corrupt in its vision of itself and forgets that its duty is to present the gospel to the world and to reveal God’s love for all the people in it.

As you think about your life, ask yourself what actions and attitudes need to be cleaned out. Then imagine what your life could be like if those things were missing.

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