Cleansing of the Temple

Dear Friends, 

What are we to make of this scene in today’s Gospel? For the Scribes and Pharisees present, it became a cause for Jesus’ death. 

But what about us here today? Do we stand at a distance and view these happenings as if on a video? Or shall we walk with Jesus up the royal steps, across an open courtyard to stand next to Him at the entrance of the Court of Gentiles, i.e. as far as non-Jews can go.  

At first glance, standing there beside Jesus, we might not be conscious of the inappropriateness of what we see and hear and smell. It looks like an ordinary marketplace to us. 

The Court of Gentiles is indeed a marketplace. Sheep and oxen are herded in so that the rich can buy them for sacrifice. There are also doves available for the poor to purchase. It’s all so convenient! 

Haggling goes on. Deals are struck and the shady make out very well. Money changers hand over acceptable shekels in exchange for the hated Roman coins and money from foreign lands. 

The noise is constant and intense. 

Maybe our reaction to what we experience standing next to Jesus is distasteful, but we shrug our shoulders. Let someone else deal with this mess. It has nothing to do with me. We would pass it by, like litter on a highway. 

But what we see spread out before us is part of the culture of the times. Goods are easily accessible, and God does not seem to be in the mix. 

Whatever has happened to the sense in the people that hear God’s presence is celebrated? Here, people come to recommit themselves to live by the Word of God as is told in today’s first reading. It was as though people ceased to understand that what God wants is mercy, not sacrifice. 

Maybe we are not sure what to think as we stand there with Jesus, but He knows what to think and how to act. Jesus moves through the courtyard with all the energy of a vigorous man in His prime, convinced of the rightness of what He is doing. Frenzy is created among the bigger animals. Jesus releases the doves and topples tables, littering valuable coins across the dirty floor. 

Jesus knows there will be consequences for His actions, but Jesus does not waver. 

He does not waver as our savior either. He invites us to cleanse the temple of our own lives as we move toward Holy Week and Easter. What and who have allowed into our temple uninvited or perhaps casually invited into our temple that distract us from deepening faith and compassion toward others? 

Have we reduced worship to a set of externals without engaging our minds and hearts? 

In our own temple, can we shut off the outside noise of our culture and be quiet before God? Can we find peace in the embrace of God? 

Can we? 

Do we want to? 

What does Jesus see and do as He stands at the entrance of our personal temples? 

~ Sister Joan Sobala