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."
No comments:
Post a Comment