Cleansing The Temple
Introduction
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.
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, better humans? 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.
1 Reading Revelations 10:8-11
I, John, heard a voice from heaven speak to me.
Then the voice spoke to me and said:
“Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel
who is standing on the sea and on the land.”
So I went up to the angel and told him to give me the small scroll.
He said to me, “Take and swallow it.
It will turn your stomach sour,
but in your mouth it will taste as sweet as honey.”
I took the small scroll from the angel’s hand and swallowed it.
In my mouth it was like sweet honey,
but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.
Then someone said to me, “You must prophesy again
about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”
Responsorial 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 John 10:27
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;
I know them, and they follow me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Luke 19:45-48
Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out
those who were selling things, saying to them,
“It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer,
but you have made it a den of thieves.”
And every day he was teaching in the temple area.
The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile,
were seeking to put him to death,
but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose
because all the people were hanging on his words.
Commentary
If you feel industrious, look back at the commentaries for Aug. 23 and Nov. 9. There I quoted a sermon of Meister Eckhart’s on the buyers and sellers in the Temple. The present quotation is part of that same sermon. He asks: what would you be like if you had none of the “merchandizing spirit” in you (the idea that everything can be bought and sold, even in the inner life: buying your way to God with merit and good works). His short answer is that you would be like God! But what is God like? “God seeks not his own: God is perfectly free in his acts, which he does out of true love. So do they who are at one with God: they are perfectly free in all their deeds, they do them for love, without asking ‘why?’ – solely to glorify God and not seeking their own therein, and God works in them.”
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. Amen!