Friday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
Cleansing The Temple
Liturgical Cycle: A | Lectionary Cycle: II
Introduction
Year II. Today the author of Revelation reflects, like Jeremiah and Ezekiel before him, on his prophetic role. The word of God is sweet-tasting to him, but contains a bitter message of warning he has to preach.
Gospel. Jesus drove out the merchants from the Temple and it might be a good time to ask ourselves: What has the Lord to drive out from us to make us better Christians? What stands in the way of being closer to him in the life of every day? What matters for us Christians is that we are attached to the Lord and close to the people he has entrusted to us. Then we can worship him with our whole life.
Opening Prayer
God our Father,
we often turn our hearts
into houses of pride and greed
rather than into homes of love and goodness
where you can feel at home.
Destroy the temple of sin in us,
drive away all evil from our hearts,
and make us living stones of a community
in which can live and reign
your Son Jesus Christ,
our Lord for ever and ever.
First Reading
And the voice I had heard from heaven spoke again, saying to me, “Go near the angel who stands on the sea and on the land, and take the small book open in his hand.”
So, I approached the angel and asked him for the small book; he said to me, “Take it and eat; although it be sweet as honey in your mouth, it will be bitter to your stomach.”
I took the small book from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, it turned bitter in my stomach.
Then I was told, “You must again proclaim God’s words about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 119:14, 24, 72, 103, 111, 131
R. (103a) How sweet to my taste is your promise!
In the way of your decrees I rejoice,
as much as in all riches.
R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!
Yes, your decrees are my delight;
they are my counselors.
R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!
The law of your mouth is to me more precious
than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!
How sweet to my palate are your promises,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!
Your decrees are my inheritance forever;
the joy of my heart they are.
R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!
I gasp with open mouth
in my yearning for your commands.
R. How sweet to my taste is your promise!
Alleluia Verse
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;
I know them, and they follow me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Then Jesus entered the temple and began driving out the merchants.
And he said to them, “God says in the Scriptures, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of robbers!”
Jesus was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and teachers of the law wanted to kill him and the elders of the Jews too,
but they couldn’t do anything because all the people were listening to him and hanging on his words.
Prayers of the Faithful
– That in our churches the Christians community may experience the presence of God in prayer and joyful worship, we pray:
– That we may make our houses of prayer places of hearty encounter for God with his people, we pray:
– That as living stones of the Church we may build up our communities as people who love and serve, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord God, our Father,
with the bread of life
and the wine of joy of himself,
your Son will renew his covenant with us.
Let Jesus give us the will and the love
to be faithful to its demands
the way he was faithful to it
even if it meant the cross.
Let us give you true worship
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
God, our faithful Father,
you have given us in this eucharist
your Son Jesus Christ
to show us in him what loyal obedience means.
Let your Son be alive in us,
so that our Christian community may be
the temple in which he lives
and where he gathers us together
as his brothers and sisters.
Keep us from all formalism,
that we may worship you with our lives,
by the power and wisdom
of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blessing
By his word and actions Jesus has spoken to us today that we must serve God as he himself did: in spirit and in truth, that is: our everyday living must correspond to what we believe, in loyal service of God and people. May God bless you and guide you: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
REFLECTIONS
Beware of the holy bribe!
Luke 19:45-48
The temple of Jerusalem, made of stones, expressed the religious structure of Israel. In the minds of many, the Temple is the central point and physical embodiment of their entire religious and cultural system. An assault on the Temple was an act of violence against Israel and an act of violence against God.
The temple authorities spread a false understanding of God among their people. The ordinary people were taught a distorted view of God through a false catechism. They promoted the idea that God could be appeased through material offerings and sacrifices. Jesus exposes their hypocrisy by asking for a coin.
Offerings in the temple could not be made with coins bearing the image of a pagan emperor. Hence, they had the money changers inside the temple premises. They had no objection in having money-changing booths inside the temple premises. To maintain the temple’s ritual purity, the devotees had to buy sacrificial animals from the temple — no wonder the place of prayer had soon turned into a market.
By driving out the traders, Jesus symbolically stopped the faulty and misleading sacrificial activities within the temple.
The message is relevant for us Christians today because the temple symbolises the Church. Churches will always be tempted by power and worldliness. This is not a power that comes from Jesus. "A den of robbers" is what Jesus calls it because the temple authorities cheated the poor!
Pope Francis says, “There is always the temptation of corruption within the Church”. If we allow ourselves to be seduced by money and power instead of fidelity to Jesus, the Lord of peace, joy, and salvation, we will fall into this trap. The priests and leaders in the Church may not directly do business in the Church, but they may be connected to the people who actually do the business. This connection may bring them a profit – by allowing them to do business even in the Holy Places. The Pope calls it the “Holy Bribe!”
Each of us faces this daily struggle, as does the Church: to always cling to his every word, to hear what he says, and to never seek security in material wealth and powers. After all, “you cannot serve two masters: either God or riches; God or power”.