III Sunday of Easter B - 2012

III Sunday of Easter B - 2012

We can see several obvious conclusions coming out of the fact of Christ's Resurrection:

-         Who believes in Christ is not anymore a slave of the Law and the sin, the believer is the child of God and free of the slavery to sin,

-         J. Christ is for us the only hope and the only Lord and Saviour,

-         The sin and death although are still part of our earthly reality, but we are not helpless and defenceless in front of this realities, because Christ is the winner, the champion the conqueror of the death and of the sin,

-         In Him we are able to overcome the sin and to win over the death by the resurrection in Christ

-         We are the witnesses of the Good News, we are the light of the world,

-         Jesus is among us and with us until the end of time.

All this is however basing on the one fundamental fact, that I believe in God and I believe (I trust) God.

Pope Benedict XVI is preparing the Year of Faith which will start on October this year …

In the Insert you will find the first part of his pastoral letter ("Porta Fidei") – the Door of Faith preparing the Year of Faith …

In the letter Pope is sharing with us His concerns and anxieties concerning especially the apparent collapse of Christianity caused by a false understanding of the renewal of the Vatican II, the failure in catechesis and a serious breakdown in the understanding and participating in the Holy Eucharist. And He proposes the REDISCOVERY OF FAITH.


Full text of the Papal Letter "Porta Fidei".

II Easter Sunday - Divine Mercy Sunday

Divine Mercy Sunday - Dives in Misericordia

Faith in God's Mercy is one of the fundamental truths of the Christian creed. God is Mercy and Love. The Bible is using this very word (mercy of God) 200 times.

About this Christ reminded the twentieth century humanity in a very special way. God reminded us about this through the revelation given to Sister Faustina Kowalska - a modest, unknown, uneducated person. Jesus came to her and told her remarkable words: "In the Old Covenant I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you to all of humanity with my Mercy. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I want to heal it, embracing sinners with love of my Merciful Heart"(Diary, 1588).

Canonization of the "secretary of Divine Mercy" Sister Faustina Kowalska done by Pope John Paul II on April 30 2000.

White Sunday, ending the octave of Easter, is celebrated as Divine Mercy Sunday. In a spontaneous way the faithful worshiped and honored Divine Mercy on this Sunday already from the time of World War II. The official celebration was introduced by the "letter for Lent in 1985" and established for the first time in the diocese of Kraków, by Cardinal Franciszek Macharski.

Then the other bishops introduced the feast of Divine Mercy in their dioceses. In 1995, at the request of the Bishops, the Holy See issued a decree permitting the celebration of the feast in all Polish dioceses, while maintaining the liturgical norms in force on that date. Of course this White Sunday celebration has its origin in the visions of Sr. Faustina.

"I wish that the first Sunday after Easter be the Feast of Mercy" (Diary 299) - said to her Lord Jesus. These and similar words are repeated in the Diary at least 14 times. How much the message of the apparitions of Sr. Faustina is up to date, show the words of the Encyclical Dives in Misericordia. John Paul II writes: "Present-day mentality, more perhaps than people in the past, seems opposed to God's mercy, and also aims to very idea of ​​mercy move to the margins of life and to remove from the human heart. The word and the concept of "mercy" if they interfere with a man who, by the development of science and technology unknown before more than ever in history has become his own master."

It is true … we have some problem with accepting the concept of mercy. We are afraid or even humiliated by the fact that we can receive something free of charge. We are accustomed to pay for everything and the idea that I can get something out of mercy put me in a position of a bagger or a position of submission.

To obtain the Mercy of God, I must first believe in Him, but also be myself merciful, I have to recognise that I need Divine Mercy and I can show to others the same mercy in my life ...

The present-day mentality, more perhaps than that of people in the past, seems opposed to a God of mercy, and in fact tends to exclude from life and to remove from the human heart the very idea of mercy.

The word and the concept of "mercy" seem to cause uneasiness in man, who, thanks to the enormous development of science and technology, never before known in history, has become the master of the earth and has subdued and dominated it. This dominion over the earth, sometimes understood in a onesided and superficial way, seems to have no room for mercy.

I am so great that I don't need God's Mercy. God's Mercy is humiliating for me, because it presupposes that I am pitiful or pathetic. If I am searching for "feeling good" the concept of Divine Mercy is awkward and unacceptable.

However, in this regard we can profitably refer to the picture of "man's situation in the world today" as described at the beginning of the Constitution Gaudium et spes. Here we read the following sentences: "In the light of the foregoing factors there appears the dichotomy of a world that is at once powerful and weak, capable of doing what is noble and what is base, disposed to freedom and slavery, progress and decline, brotherhood and hatred. Man is growing conscious that the forces he has unleashed are in his own hands and that it is up to him to control them or be enslaved by them." (Dives in Mosericordia ch. 2 - 1980)

Easter – 2012

No resurrection without death

Easter Sunday, the day of Resurrection of Christ is bringing us a double message.

From one side we are joyfully acknowledging that Jesus Christ is risen, that He is the Lord of Life and that His resurrection is for us an assurance of our resurrection.

But we have to keep in our mind the other side of the reality of the Resurrection …

Tell me please what is the necessary and indispensable condition of the resurrection?

Yes … first … YOU MUST DIE!

There is no resurrection if you don’t die. You have to die first.

You have to die to yourself, you have to die to your sins, you have to die to your selfishness, you have to die to your way of life, you have to die to your pride, you have to die to all your worldly and earthly habits. In order to raise up YOU HAVE TO DIE.

The first and basic idea of the Baptism is that through Baptism we are dying to our old selves, we are dying to the world so to be reborn for Christ.

Do I realize this truth? I was baptize as a baby, I didn't even remember that I was baptized but I have to be aware that my Baptism was an immersion into the "death of Christ", that I have to die every day as St. Paul says: "… we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life." (Romans 6:3-4)

There is no other way to rise with Christ … than through death …

And this is also the message of Easter.

Easter Vigil - 2012

Easter Vigil - RCIA
 
This week, the Holy Father spoke of this sifting at Holy Thursday Mass.
 
"…as Christ told Peter, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat," today "we are once more painfully aware that Satan has been permitted to sift the disciples before the whole world."
—POPE BENEDICT XVI, Mass of the Lord’s Supper, April 21st, 2011
 
Where do you and I stand in this sifting? Are we among the weeds or the wheat?
 
"We too find excuses when being his disciples starts becoming too costly, too dangerous."
 
It's very uplifting to be with Christ in the moments of glory, it's wonderful to be with Him in the time of exaltation …
If Judas, Peter, and the Apostles fled the Lord in His hour of sorrow … what will I do when the time of sorrow approach?
 
It's wonderful the liturgy of Easter Vigil … in few minutes time some of you will receive the Sacrament of Baptism; some will be accepted to the full unity with the Catholic Church, some will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation and some will receive the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ for the first time.
 
What a wonderful achievement? What a time of glory and joyful exaltation …
 
But my dear brothers and sisters … will you be with Christ when all this will be over and when comes the normal, difficult daily life?
 
Or "you will find excuses when being His disciple starts becoming too costly, too dangerous, to boring to demanding."
 
I will quote you only one sentence of Jesus which is repeated three times in the Gospel:
 
"You will be hated by all because of My Name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved." (Matthew 10,22)
 
The way to the Resurrection goes through Calvary. We have to be aware of this truth.

Good Friday 2011

We are afraid of suffering and pain. We are scared and terrified of discomfort. We won't like even to listen about it. We search Jesus Christ without cross and very often we find cross without Christ. And this is our misery our disaster.
 
Elizabeth Leseur a twentieth century saint in a letter to a woman on the verge of losing her eyesight, wrote: "The Stoics say, 'suffering is nothing.' They were wrong. Illuminated by a clearer light we Christians say, 'suffering is everything.'"
 
She knew what she was talking about. She had married a man who was a dedicated medical doctor, but an unbeliever and well known leader of the French anti-clerical, atheistic movement, who tried to dissuade Elizabeth from her faith. When she tried to share her faith with her husband, he cut her off, sometimes with mockery. Elizabeth bore his insults quietly and even though she was weakened by hepatitis, she worked diligently. In her early forties, she was diagnosed with cancer and for three years, suffered horribly so to finally die in 1914.
 
When she was dying, she said to her husband,
"Felix, when I am dead, you will become a Catholic and a Dominican priest."
 
Her husband answered:
"Elizabeth, you know my sentiments. I've sworn hatred of God, I shall live in the hatred and I shall die in it."
 
After her death, her husband discovered the spiritual journal she kept. It moved him to his depths especially her profound and personal meditations on suffering and cross of Jesus Christ.
 
Reading through her papers, Felix found her will:
 
"In 1905, I asked almighty God to send me sufficient sufferings to purchase your soul.
On the day that I die, the price will have been paid.
Greater love than this no woman has than she who lay down her life for the salvation of her husband."
 
He experienced a profound conversion. He became a Dominican priest and travelled through Europe speaking about his wife's spiritual writings.
 
Elizabeth Leseur certainly found the ultimate truth about the value of suffering …
 
"The Stoics said, 'suffering is nothing.' They were wrong. Illuminated by Christ's light we Christians say, 'suffering is everything.'"
 
So, this Good Friday we learn that through the suffering of Jesus we receive the greatest blessings - forgiveness and true life.
 
Without Christ … our sufferings can only destroy and annihilate us. Without Christ our sufferings are absolutely senseless. Without Christ the cross -we are carrying on- is senseless and hopeless. Without Christ the suffering and death have no meaning and no significance. Without Christ whole our life is meaningless.
 
If we join our own sufferings to His, they become means of grace, means of our salvation. Illumined by faith, we can say, "suffering is everything."
 
As we read in today's second reading:
 
"Jesus Christ though he was the Son of God, He learned obedience from what he suffered; and when He was made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. "
 
Amen.

HOLY THURSDAY

HOLY THURSDAY

- THE FIRST EUCHARISTIC BANQUET

- WHAT IT MEANS TODAY?

When Jesus entered the Upper Room to eat the Passover Meal with His disciples, it would become the night that changed the world. When Jesus broke the bread and shared the wine saying to his Disciples "This is my Body, this is my Blood. Do this in memory of Me" it would become the greatest of Gifts, the Gifts of His Body and Blood. The Gift of Himself. The Apostles realized this fact the very next morning, when they saw their Teacher stretched out on the cross. His Body and Blood given to us for our salvation …

St. Paul was probably one of the first to understand also that Jesus was really present in the Eucharist. Saint Paul saw clearly that when we share in the Body and Blood of Christ and when the words "This is my Body” are said as they are every day throughout this world, in every country, in every parish, in every time and place, we become indeed one bread - one body, the Body of Christ – because He gave us this commandment "Do this in memory of Me". 

One converted theologian said: "You become what you eat." When you eat the Body of Christ you become the Body of Christ. He is transforming you into Himself.

But, do we really understand and appreciate what this means as we come up to receive the Holy Communion? Do we understand or believe that this is Jesus Christ Himself in His Body and Blood, the Creator and the King of the Universe through Whom everything was made?

Do we really understand what is happening as many of us shuffle up disengaged? It sure doesn’t look like we really understand as we trudge up quietly as if receiving a handout in a bread line then trudge back to our seats perhaps even looking at our watches. I have done that and am ashamed I ever have.

The Angel of Peace appeared before the Children of Fatima holding a chalice in his hands, above which was suspended a Host from which drops of Blood were falling into the chalice. The Angel left the chalice suspended in the air and prostrated Himself before it in prayer. If an Angel can do this … why am I so bling and not able to see the Hidden Reality of the Lord present in the Eucharistic species?

It doesn’t mean we have to fling ourselves to the ground but perhaps we can prostrate ourselves internally as we receive the Holy Communion. Pope John Paul II stated that we “need to cultivate a lively awareness of Christ’s real presence.”

Something very mystical and awe inspiring happens when we receive the Eucharist. Sadly so many don’t understand or believe this.

When Jesus becomes present in the Eucharist He is not alone- He brings Heaven with him. I love the imagery of what St. Padre Pio said about the events of the Eucharist. He said it was “Paradise” and “Our Lady is present at every Mass, along with all the angels and the “whole celestial court.” I must admit I envy these Saints, and I suspect most of our Saints, St. Faustina, St. Therese, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Joan of Arc, St. Francis, St. Padre Pio each have experienced Eucharist this way. We can too. The evidence has always been there.

There is only one Mass, one Eternal Mass, and only one Liturgy of the Eucharist that is taking place in Heaven all the time, or rather out of time, because Heaven is timeless. So we do not merely attend Mass, nor do we go back in time 2 000 years, but we join with all of heaven and earth in celebrating that one eternal liturgy. Remember what priests proclaim “Now, let us join the choirs of angels as they sing their unending Hymn of praise.”

Think of it at every moment priests and believers throughout the world on every hour celebrate Mass all over the world. We are not alone ... ever …. One writer has said that “we go to Heaven when we attend Mass”.

So, good music or bad music, good homilies or bad, good pronunciation or bad - it doesn't matter. The Eternal Mass matters – as it is always Heaven on Earth joined together when priest celebrate the Holy Eucharist.

What we are experiencing during this time is not our Mass, not our offering, is not a spectacle, not a ceremony, not a common meal … it's rather the moment when the priest is opening to us the gate to Heaven, so that we can participate in this ONE, ETERNAL SACRIFICE of Jesus Christ.

When the priest lifts the Sacred Host in front of you, pause a moment- see into the Host to feel the whole magnificent presence of Jesus and the Trinity, the Angels and Communion of Saints and feel how jubilant they are to join with you in this always present Eternal Banquet, the eternal Sacrifice of Christ.

Jesus didn't say: "Whoever studies the Bible will have eternal life." He didn't say "Pray 7 times per day and you will inherit the Kingdom of God". But He certainly said: "Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise that person up on the last day."

Eucharist is truly the center, the summit and the source of our life.

This is what Jesus instituted during the Last Supper, this is why He gave us the commandment: "Do this in memory of Me."

Palm Sunday – 2012

Jesus' life can be summarized in few very meaningful words:

First we have Gloria at His birth

Than we have "this is my beloved Son" at His baptism and transfiguration,

Next we have "Hosanna" in today's first Gospel

And "crucify Him" in today's second Gospel.

But we have not to forget that the last word summarizing His life the "ALLELUIA" on the Easter Sunday.

In our life we did have our Gloria, we did have our "this is my beloved child", we do certainly have our Hosanna and crucify him, but we cannot forget that the end of our life is Alleluia at the day of our resurrection.

**************************************

When Jesus dies on the Cross, a pagan, a Roman centurion makes the announcement: "Surely this is the Son of God." To understand who Jesus is, we have to stand under the Cross.  To recognize how much God loves us, we have to realize the extent of his suffering for us.  To realize that we are his followers, we have to join Him on the Cross. Love gives joy, but this joy can result in pain. Love means giving, but this gift can result in suffering as we say no to our own desires for the sake of the one whom we love. Love gives life. The Lord loves us so much that we receive His life.  As we begin this Holy Week we pray that we might have the courage to follow Christ in embracing our own crosses.  May we make real the cross of Christ in the world by giving ourselves to others in love, not sentimental and emotional but in real "love in the truth", as Pope Benedict XVI writes in his encyclical letter "Cartatis in Veritate".

V Sunday in Lent – B - 2012

 

He who loves his life will lose it

In today's Gospel Jesus has for us an amazing and even frightening truth about the human condition. He feels the approaching hour of His final battle with evil, death and Satan on the cross. He knows that only such an ultimate and complete sacrifice, the sacrifice of Himself may be effective in the fight against evil. God gives Himself to man and gives Himself to the end, irrevocably. It is the gift of total and absolute sacrifice for the salvation of humanity. The gift of self, the gift of His life. And Christ invites us to make such a gift of ourselves too. "If anyone serves Me, let him deny himself, and follow me, and where I am there shall my servant be."

Is it not true that in our lives, very often we lose precisely what we are so much attached to, what we love so much? Is it not true so that our economy and philosophy of life, is a philosophy of ownership, or philosophy of possession, "as much as you can, have, possess and use?" Our whole life is oriented toward possession, toward having. And Christ offers us a re-evaluation, a change of this optics. Nothing what I have, I really do have, but rather things have me. I am not the owner; I am rather possessed or controlled by the things. So, what I love so much, I will lose! I WILL LOSE EVERYTHING WHAT I HAVE. And it is hopeless, I cannot change this, this is a fate, this is our human life after the original sin. "If the seed thrown into the ground don't die, it remains alone and it does not produce anything any yield nothing." Therefore in order, to gain, to win I must be able to lose, in order to live I need to know how to die ... above all, to myself and to my whims, caprices and sins. This is the strange philosophy of God, who has not chosen another way to save man, than through the sacrifice of Himself, through the self-destruction ... like a seed thrown into the ground. In this way, He assured the eternal life to those who want to follow Him, those who are able to forget themselves, to lose their earthly life.

It is very painful, but is this involuntary loss of what we love so much not as painful? Only, this loss does not bring anything in return! And here, in exchange for the temporality of my earthly life and the pain God is providing me with eternal life. Can I afford it, Can I lose my life to win the eternal life?

Or maybe I'm so attached to these little things so strongly that I cannot get rid of them?

Alternative Homily

The radical logic of the Gospel ...

How difficult it is, we cannot even understand how to accept, and it is even harder to put into practice the words of the Gospel today? How difficult it is to believe in the depths of our hearts, that anyone who wants to gain his life must lose it, that the seed must die in order to give the fruits? This logic is a way absolutely incompatible with our common sense, for who of us wants to die, who will agree to lose their lives to get it back, who is able to learn obedience in suffering, and in self-denial? (Mt 16.24, Mk 8.34, Lk 9:23)

Unfortunately, this is the radical logic of the Gospel, which is shocking and teasing today's man. Inflexibilities and firmness of Good News discourages modern man and causes such a resistance among listeners that those who hear these words of Christ are revolting and rejecting Good News and finally Christ. In our daily life we try to soften this harsh and difficult logic of Christ and what we have? I heard somebody say: "If you are searching Christ without Cross you will find only cross without Christ. And this is the real disaster!

And God certainly does not want terrorize us, or to create martyrs. He does not propose the mortification and purification as ends in themselves, but as treatments for a real healing a measure to achieve the journey to the Father's House. He draws no pleasure from the suffering and death, because He did not create it (Wis 1:13-14). So why such a radical demands, why such "inhuman" recommendations? And why He speaks of this in the context of "glorification of the Son of Man"? What glorious can be in death on the cross? And why Christ exalted on the cross is to attract us to Him? We would prefer to do it on Mount Tabor, or on the top of the Mount of Ascension, but not on Calvary.

All this does not seem to be understandable and certainly is not acceptable without Resurrection. The whole logic of the Gospel is absurd and unacceptable if Christ has not risen (1 Cor 15:14). And only the Resurrection of Christ put all the "inhuman" requirements and recommendations in a different light. Because only Christ exalted on the cross and risen from the death contradicts logic of death and draws all to Himself, that is ... to eternal life. And it is precisely this exaltation, referred to in today's gospel which is the ultimate winning of LIFE. The cross is a turning point in human history, is the reverse process of destruction and reign of death, which began after sin. And that's why I need to lose my life to retrieve the true and full, eternal life in Christ.

IV Sunday of Lent – 2012 - B

God sent his Son to the world to save the world

God certainly is rich in mercy (Ephesians 2:4) and there is no doubt that he shows it to all and without exception (Deuteronomy 5:10). His mercy and forgiveness have no limits ... except one - a stubborn, ill-will of man. God cannot show forgiveness for someone who does not need it, who does not recognize that being a sinner, man needs God forgiveness God cannot do anything for a person who believes that God has nothing to forgive him. Christ certainly did not come into the world to condemn the world but to save it (Jn 3:17). But he cannot do it by force and against the free will of man, because He respects too much the freedom once given to man. And here is the problem. It cannot be that I commit the sin, indulge myself in carelessness and I disregard God and his commandments, for anarchy and lawlessness, and yet persuade myself, "God will forgive me and save me because He loves me so much, because He is merciful", because God has imposed on Himself a "duty of forgiveness" - for every human being, because He is bound to fulfill "automatically" its redemptive function (Sir 5,3-7, John 12.47).

That is why Christ continually and so strongly emphasizes the need for standing in the light of truth, especially in the truth about myself. "Anyone who commits wickedness hates the light of truth and does not come to light, lest his deeds be condemned." That truth is a liberating and saving force (John 8:32), because He, Jesus Christ is this Truth which saves (John 14:6).Living in the Truth, it is fair from being judgemental, it means rather to see my strengths and positives, but also acknowledge my inadequacy and sinfulness, because only such an attitude teaches me humility and allows me to accept Christ as the Savior. This, in turn, is the only way to attain the Divine Mercy. It always comes back the saying of St. Augustine: "God created us without us, but save us without us He cannot." And who says I am without sin, is a liar (1 John 1:10) and there is no truth in him. If I don't accept my situation of sin, I cannot expect to be forgiven, because what God would forgive him, since I consider myself pure and innocent? Do I live in the light of truth? Or rather, I avoid the light of truth, because I have something to hide, and the light bothers me (Jn 3,19-21)?

Over the next two weeks we will follow together with St. John in his Gospel, Jesus' discussion with the Pharisees. But it is also-in a sense, Jesus' discussion with the modern world and with me about the truth which is revealed in Christ. Am I ready to accept this fact, with all its consequences? God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, and I cannot be able to accede to God in His Mercy otherwise than through the Son, who is Truth. Knowing the right, the truth about myself, is an indispensable condition of repentance and acceptance of God's Love.

And this truth is sometimes very unpleasant, very irritating, annoying, and even frustrating. I wondered many times over the problem "Against what is really fighting our modern civilization?" And I think that the best candidate for the most attacked value by contemporary people is the value of TRUTH. Ultimately, Christ was crucified, not because they talked about the love of God and the neighbor. He was crucified precisely because he preached the TRUTH, He was crucified for He was calling people to live in the TRUTH. And this is what man very often rejects and cannot stand. This is what we try to kill, to shout down, and to silence. Because we don't like it. This is precisely what is happening in the world today, when the Church of Christ speaks of unbridled immorality of pornography, the wickedness of abortion, the crime of euthanasia, the immorality of homosexual acts. Civilization is trying to shout it down, get rid of it, kill the voice of conscience, which reveals in the end is the voice of Truth itself. That is what Jesus says in today's Gospel: "the light has come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light neither comes to the light, lest his deeds be condemned. "

III Sunday of Lent – B – 2012

In the first reading we have the Ten Commandments, the law of God, about what one of the philosophers said, that there is no possibility of denying the ultimate value of this law.

1.  You shall not have other gods besides me.

2.  You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain.

3.  Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.

4.  Honour your father and your mother,

5.  You shall not kill.

6.  You shall not commit adultery.

7.  You shall not steal.

8.  You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

9.  You shall not covet your neighbour’s house.

10.  You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or anything else that belongs to him.

And yet if I verify these instructions with our contemporary life...?

·       How many people live their lives worshipping money, comfort, extravagance, pleasure, success, satisfaction, wealth? Where in all this is God the Father?

·       How often even among Catholics especially politicians the name of the Lord is taken only for the political and unfair ways and purposes?

·       How many people keep the day of rest holy?

·       “Honour your father and your mother” and I thought about the persistent agenda on euthanasia?

·       “You shall not kill” and I thought about the pro-choice lows and abortion ...

·       “You shall not commit adultery” – and immediately click out the pornographic industry ...

And we can endlessly continue with this list. All commandments are constantly neglected, denied, rejected and contradicted in the name of human rights, in the name of human dignity, human freedom, in the name of civil liberties ...

And then I read the Gospel, where I see Jesus Christ in rage and how the “zeal for the house of God is consuming Him” and I realised that most probably He will react in the same way seeing what is going on with His Church, the Temple of God today. How often this Temple of God became only the marketplace of the personal opinions, private convictions, individualistic statements, the place of business and commerce where o more God and his worship is present but ME and MY personality?

And then I read the short passage from the letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, our second reading today:

“Brothers and sisters:

when Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom

we proclaim Christ crucified,

a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

but to those who are called, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom,

and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”

“Jesus Christ crucified the power of God and the wisdom of God” will certainly take care of His Temple, and will cleanse His Church.

As long as we believe Jesus Christ crucified we don’t need to be afraid, hopeless and depressive.

But in todays' Gospel there is one more think which attracted my attention. This is the end of the dialog between Christ and Sadducees:

At this the Jews answered and said to him,

"What sign can you show us for doing this?"

Jesus answered and said to them,

"Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."

The Jews said,

"This temple has been under construction for forty-six years,

and you will raise it up in three days?"

But he was speaking about the temple of his body.

1.  Jesus is defending and protecting the temple of His Mystical Body, the Church,

2.  He is enraged against those who destroy it, who "are making out of His Father's house a marketplace." He is infuriated with those who are changing His Holy Church into "robber's den".

3.  But He is also very positive and encouraging when saying "even if you destroy this temple, I will raise it up in three days." Nothing and nobody can destroy the temple of God, the Mystical Body of Christ, nothing and nobody can destroy the Church of Christ. About this He also assured us when giving to Peter the responsibility for the church: "I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and even the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it."