DO YOU LOVE GOD? CATHOLIC SUNDAY SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS: 3RD SUNDAY OF LENT, CYCLE B, 2024

DO YOU LOVE GOD?

God is love (1 John 4:8). Hence, to love is not only to be religious and spiritual but also to be God-like. Inarguably, love is at the basis of our religious teaching, preaching, doctrines, theology, philosophy, ideology, practices, and even rituals and rites. If these are devoid of love then religion is as useless as any human venture.

The Ten Commandments are a summary of the love of God and the love of others. Fundamentally, at the core of God’s laws and commandments is love. This is what Christianity is all about. It is the spirituality of God and the consciousness of godliness in all people and things. Religion and religious tenets are all about rules of dos and don'ts. However, Christianity, from Jesus’s standpoint is not rules and regulations but simply love.

One of the long-term challenges to Christians is not to reduce Christianity to religious practices of rules and regulations leaving out love. For Christ, the love of God and neighbour is all that is. On this ground, he confronted the religious hypocrisy of his time. This was what Jesus did above everything else to provoke the religious authority of his time.

 OUR THEME

The readings of this third Sunday of Lent bring to our mind, the consciousness of God´s love through authentic observances of God´s commandments. By doing God´s will and by holy reverence for God´s house and everything dedicated to God.

They teach us that Lent is the ideal time to clean out the Temple of our hearts and to offer to God proper Divine worship by obeying the Ten Commandments. As such, to worship in spirit and truth, we must prepare our hearts and minds. That is, by being faithful to the covenant relationship (keeping the commandments) and seeking the wisdom of God, which is the wisdom of the cross.

That is, the true and authentic love of God is made manifest in keeping his commandments, seeking the Word of God which is the Wisdom of God: Jesus and his cross. As well as, having a profound and lovely reverence for God and everything that belongs to Him.

Indeed, the focus here is the Lenten observances of prayer, fasting, charity, and penance. The most intimate way to love God is in prayer and through fasting from evil and keeping his commands as well as a sacrificial or penitential charity to others in thoughts, words, and actions.

FIRST READING: EXODUS 20:1-17

God going down memory lane of Israel's history from slavery to freedom. Moses gave the Decalogue or the Ten Commandments to them. It is the most important law of the Israelites with two dimensions: how to know, love, and respect God and how to treat one another as brothers and sisters.

Ultimately, Jesus summarizes the Ten Commandments into just one word, love. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength (Mark 12:30, Mt.22:37, Lk. 10:27). As well as, the love of your neighbour as yourself (Mark 12:31).

At Lent, all we do is strive to live up to this divine command of God to love by purifying ourselves through the Lenten observances or practices of prayer, fasting, charity, and penance. And to be reconciled and renewed through genuine repentance of our sins.

Moses in the first reading of Exodus 20:1-17, initiated a reformative change to the pilgrim nation of Israel. A much-needed reformation for a nation seeking an identity in a wandering land.

The psalmist in Psalm 19 invites us to acknowledge that the Words of the Lord, (that is his laws, decree, precepts, commands, or ordinances) are not just perfect, trustworthy, right, clear, pure, and true but they also have and give everlasting life.

 SECOND READING: 1 CORINTHIANS 1:22-25

St. Paul in his 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 not only refuted but challenged vehemently which philosophies, theologies, ideologies, and thinking stand or hinder the truth of the gospel of Christ crucified and resurrected and its Power and Wisdom.

For Paul, Christ's crucified is the centre of Christianity and the Christian faith. Something impregnatable for the Jews and incomprehensible for the Gentiles. Yet, it is the wisdom, power, and authority of God to save us.

It is God´s foolishness wiser than men´s and God´s brokenness stronger than men’s. This Wisdom of the cross is the eternal love of God manifested through Jesus Christ. To save, heal, and unite all peoples, races, and nations. Therefore, there is no need to live with fractions and disputes among nations: Jews or Greeks, free or slaves.

In Christ, love wins and hate is defeated. Lent is when we try through Lenten practices to purify ourselves of hate and allow love to be renewed in us through our effort to pray, fast, give, and do penance. This is the mark of the sacrificially crucified Christ the Wisdom and Power of God.

THE GOSPEL: JOHN 2:13-25

Jesus purifies the Temple of commercial defilement; then proclaims himself the New Temple. John´s account of the cleansing of the Temple occurred in the early part of Jesus´ ministry. While the synoptic gospels placed it at the end of Jesus’ ministry and one of the reasons the Jews sought to kill him or accuse him.

In the Gospel of John 2:13-25 Jesus openly challenged those responsible for God´s temple a home for all for their criminal dealings in the house of God. The temple exists to serve God´s purpose and to reveal his powerful and life-giving presence to the world. The distorted image as a marketplace is robbing Peter to pay Paul.

There are a lot of details as well as lessons for us in this dramatic event of Jesus´ public ministry and his undying love or zeal for God´s house.

First and foremost, why did Jesus act as he did? What moved Jesus to this white-hot anger in the Temple Courts? It was strange that His anger was a terrifying thing. The picture of Jesus with the whip is an awe-inspiring sight. The empathetic and compassionate God fierily lost it on men who sought to make gains with or from religion.

KEEPING ANCESTRAL FAITH AND PRACTICES

 1.     At the Passover Feast in Jerusalem, according to the law, it was obligatory for every adult male Jew who lived within fifteen miles of Jerusalem to attend the feast.

 2.     During this compulsory pilgrimage, there was a tax that every Jew over nineteen years of age must pay. It is known as the Temple tax. Equally, they were expected to make a sacrifice to God in thanksgiving offerings and atonement offerings for their sins.

 3.     The tax was one half-shekel. However, this tax must never be paid in foreign currency but in Galilean shekels or shekels of the sanctuary. These were Jewish coins, and so could be used as a gift to the Temple. The foreign currencies were considered unclean, and they could not be used to pay a debt to God.

THE TWIST OF GOOD AND NOBLE INTENTIONS

 4.     Hence, there were money changers in the Temple courts. Their service was a legitimate trade to help the pilgrims who arrived from every corner of the world with all kinds of coins. If their trade had been straightforward they would have been fulfilling an honest and necessary purpose.

 5.     Sadly, this was not the case. What enraged Jesus was that pilgrims to the Passover who could ill afford it were been charged excessive or exorbitant commissions.

 6.     These money-changers known as “kollubistai” were making so much money for themselves as well as the Temple. It was a rampant and shameless social injustice--and what was worse, it was being done in the name of religion and under the supervision of Temple religious authorities.

 7.     Besides the money changers there were also the sellers of oxen and sheep and doves. It might therefore seem to be a natural and helpful thing that the victims for the sacrifices could be bought in the Temple court.

 8.     Though, pilgrims could come as well with their animals for the sacrifices they wished to offer at the Temple. However, there was a law that any animal offered in sacrifice must be perfect and unblemished.

 9.     Consequently, the Temple authorities had appointed inspectors known as “Mumcheh” to examine the victims that were to be offered. The inspection fee was one penny.

 10. The usual practice was if a worshipper bought a victim outside the Temple, it was certain that it would be rejected after the examination.

 SOCIAL INJUSTICE IN THE NAME OF RELIGION

 11. Again that might not have mattered much, as this was done deliberately to condition them to buy the animals sold in the Temple courts. Unjustly, a pair of doves that could cost as little as 4 pence outside the Temple was sold for as much as 75 pence inside.

 12. Here again was bare-faced extortion at the expense of poor and humble pilgrims, who were practically blackmailed into buying their victims from the Temple booths if they wished to sacrifice at all--once more a glaring social injustice aggravated by the fact that it was perpetrated in the name of pure religion.

 13. Certainly, this moved Jesus to flaming anger. He loved God and he loved God's children too. And he couldn't stand passively by while the worshippers of Jerusalem were treated in this way.

 WHY JESUS ACTED WITH FLAMING ANGER

 Equally, according to many biblical scholars, other deep factors triggered Jesus’ burning anger against the exploitation of the pilgrims by conscienceless men.

 The account of the gospel evangelists with Jesus' precise words gives a holistic insight into Jesus’ actions. Matthew gives them: "My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers" (Matthew 21:13). Mark has it: "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations. But you have made it a den of robbers" (Mark 11:17). Luke has it: "My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers" (Luke 19:46). While John has it: "Take these things away; you shall not make my Father's house a house of trade" (John 2:16). It is obvious that beyond the exploitations of the pilgrims.

JESUS SEES BEYOND EXPLOITATIONS

 a.     He acted as he did because God's house was being desecrated. It was supposed to be a house of prayer, a place of awe, reverence, silence, and quietness to encounter God in the serenity of our hearts and the mystical ambient of the Temple.

 b.    Jesus acted as he did to show that the whole paraphernalia of animal sacrifice was completely irrelevant. For centuries the prophets had been saying exactly that (Isaiah 1:11-17; Jeremiah 7:22; Hosea 5:6; Hosea 8:13 and Psalms 51:16). Hence, Jesus acted as he did to show that no sacrifice of any animal can ever put a man right with God.

 Jesus stated clearly with the Samaritan woman at the well. When he said, “Woman, believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. …Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father, in the Spirit and truth…. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and truth” John 4: 21-24.

 c.     There is still another reason why Jesus acted as he did. Mark has a curious little addition that none of the other gospels has: "My house shall be called the house of prayer for all the nations" (Mark 11:17). The Jewish Temple was expanded and renovated by King Herod from 19 BC TO 64 AD has compartments such as there was first the Court of the Gentiles, then the Court of the Women, then the Court of the Israelites, then the Court of the Priests.

 All this buying and selling was going on in the Court of the Gentiles which was the only place into which a Gentile might come. The only place he or she has to pray and encounter the Living God of Israel. The Temple authorities and the Jewish traders knew this, yet they were making the Court of the Gentiles into an uproar and a rabble where no man could pray.

 For Jesus, the Temple is a holy place and the outer part of the Temple for the Gentiles is also a Holy space for prayer and encounters with God. Converting that space to market is robbing the Gentiles of the opportunity to pray and encounter the Living God of Israel.

THE PRINCIPAL CAUSE OF JESUS’ DEATH

One of the hardest and bitterest truths responsible for Jesus´s passion, crucifixion, and death was his reformative action of the gospel of today. He did not use diplomacy or sugar-coated the truth to confront the religious and ethical decay of his time.

If for one, the Church and the Christian life have lost their fervour to be salt of the earth or its illumination to be light of the world. It is because she lacks the moral guts to tell herself the challenging truth that could lead to genuine reformation to save it from the falsehood that plagues its institutional basis: like the priesthood becoming ´priestcraft´.

In the light of the gospel of today, we ask ourselves: in what ways have we allowed the values of the marketplace or social place to override the values of God´s presence and gospel in our lives, in the life of our church, or the life of community or society?

COMMERCIALIZATION RELIGION IN MODERN TIME

 In modern times, we see the same attitude of the Temple authorities and Jewish traders against wary, poor, humble, and innocent pilgrims or adherents of Christianity. It is so interesting to see how our churches’ lives play out today.

 1.     Our profit or gain-oriented or mindfulness as pastors and priests leading to commercial Christianity in place of true worship of God and reverence for his Church in our care.

 2.     The affluence, wealth, and ostentatious lifestyles of pastors and priests in the name of being “holy” servants of God or in the name of religion or prosperity gospels which is at the expense of their poverty-stricken followers.

 3.     Our twists of offerings, tithes, and the invention of many dubious ways of ripping the poor to accrue wealth and riches, such as seed sowing, victory offerings, etc.

 4.     The bitterness and rancour among collaborators with priests and pastors over the benefits they get in scheming the people or doing the dirty bidding of men of God to rob, exploit, and manipulate poor and innocent worshippers.

 5.     Our creation or empowering of middlemen whom we used to manipulate and exploit the innocence and religious mindedness of our church in the name of God.

 6.     On the part of the collaborators who for importance and fame allow themselves to be used by some pastors or priests of churches to convert God´s house to the den of robbers.

 7.     Our lack of sensitivity or indifference to make the House of God a place conducive to true worship, a house of prayer, awe, reverence, and silence to meet God.

 8.     Our “I don’t care” attitude towards places of worship, the environment of worship, as well as the things used for worship.

 9.      Our snobbishness, exclusiveness, coldness, lack of welcome, tendency to make the congregation into a closed club, arrogance, and fastidiousness-- keep them seeking strangers out.

These put us in the same shoes of the Temple authorities and traders who see religion as a means to enrich oneself. As well as maintaining indifference to sacrileges, theft, and corruption in God’s name. Making us men and women with little or no love for God, for his house, and as our brothers and sisters who seek God with a sincere heart. Let us remember the wrath of Jesus against those who made it difficult and even impossible for the seeking stranger to make contact with God.

THE NEW TEMPLE

(John 2:17-22)Jesus´ action provoked reactions from the Temple authorities and officials as well as his disciples. For the disciples, they remembered the words of Psalms 69:9 about the messiah: --“For zeal for Your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.” This grounded their conviction that Jesus was the Messiah.

On the part of the Temple authorities, they questioned Jesus´ motive and authority to act like the Messiah. Hence, they demanded a sign as proof he acted as who he claimed to be. Unfortunately, his response was misinterpreted and taken out of context. It was maliciously twisted into a destructive claim to be used against him at his trial (Mt. 26:61).

What did he say? And what did he mean? When he claimed, "Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it." First, Jesus never said he would destroy the material Temple and then rebuild it. Jesus looked for the end of the physical Temple.

Mark´s account tells us that Jesus said: "I will destroy this Temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another not made with hands" (Mark 14:58). What Jesus meant was that his coming had put an end to all this man-made, man-arranged way of worshipping God and put in its place spiritual worship.

THE BODY OF CHRIST: THE REAL AND TRUE TEMPLE OF GOD’S DWELLING PLACE

Here, Jesus was getting the Temple authorities and the religious leaders to shift their attention from the physical Temple to the actual Temple: the Temple of his Body.

 Contextually, from the first-century Jewish perspective, the Temple was nothing less than the dwelling place of God on earth. Hence, when Jesus identified himself as the true Temple. What he was revealing is that he is the dwelling place of God on earth. That his own body is where God has come to dwell among men. John attested to this when he stated “The Word (Jesus) became flesh and dwelt (tabernacle) among us” (Jn. 1:14)

 Indeed, this is a revelation of Jesus divinity and it points towards his resurrection. The Jewish religious authorities in collaboration with the pagan Roman authority are going to destroy the Temple of his Body through crucifixion and death. But he (God) was going to rebuild it through the resurrection from the dead.

This is a really powerful sign or testimony that points to the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Again through Christ, the new tabernacle of God´s presence in the world and especially in the hearts and lives of men. We too are been made into the Temple of God: the Holy Spirit through the indwelling of the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 1 Peter 2:4-5)

 OUR PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, help us to allow you to cleanse our spirit and body which are temples of the Living God and the Holy Spirit. May Lenten's observances of prayer, penance, fasting, and charity enable us to be clean of greed and ego. To offer you true worship, by faithfully keeping and observing your commandments and seeking the wisdom of God, you, the Incarnate Word. Amen!