Sunday Gospel Comment
Alberic Jacovone OSB
YEAR B THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT - 23.3.03 Ex 20,1-17; 1 Cor 1,22-25; Jn 2,13-25 The Temple of Jesus’ Body The Purification of the Temple in a very significant event in the life of Jesus: we are told that he made a whip from cords and drove out, those who were selling cattle, sheep and pigeons, knocking over the money changers’’ tables & shouting: ‘...You’ve turned my Father’s House into a market place and a den of robbers’. All 4 Gospels present this event: Matthew, Marc & Luke place it at the end (in the last week!) of Jesus’ life, but John places it at the start of his public life: obviously each writer had his interpretation, understanding and reason. In John’s version: when Jesus was challenged by the Temple Authorities, He issued in reply a mysterious warning: ‘Destroy this Temple and in three days I will rebuild it...’ to which the Author comments that Jesus was referring to the Temple of his body. In between the lines, we sense that Temple and Temple worship, was a topic of debate and disagreement among Jews and Christians: these argued that an acceptable worshipper is one who worships in spirit & truth. The Temple of Jerusalem was one of the seven wonders of the world: it was the glory of Judaism, the centre & best expression of its worship. It was praised for its magnificence, size & shape, as indeed all ancient Temples were famous for their daring structures. But this Temple carried also a conviction that God himself was dwelling in its inner room or shrine or sanctuary or ‘holy of holies’. Today, our secular mind finds it difficult to see how God can live in a dark room more than anywhere else. For us, churches and temples are a building, an edifice with a roof on top, for the function of providing shelter to pilgrims and devotees. The very concept ‘work of edification’ has to do with us humans, in the sense that we build one another up, just as stones & mortar lock together to form a solid structure. We are the Temple of his body. The most sacred part of the Temple was its inner-most, secluded room: a place in total darkness, and totally inaccessible to people. It expressed the nearness, mystery & presence of God, and was conceived as a ‘magnificent tent’ (hekal), not unlike the ‘splendid abode’ of any oriental king, one of whom was Salomon, who first built the Temple. In the debate, the Christian point of view was this: the Temple -for all its magnificence, and all the multitude of sacrifices performed in it, was no longer acceptable to God, since people lacked integrity of heart; and this was true of every human being, not just the Jews. The Prophets had already lodged a fundamental criticism against the Temple: because God’s people lacked moral integrity, they foretold that the Temple would be laid waste. So, when the Temple came to be tragically destroyed by the Romans in 70AD, Christians came to believe that a new age was starting: now God will live in the heart of every true believer, who worships everywhere in spirit and truth. Since heaven and earth cannot contain the omni-presence of God , buildings (Jerusalem Temple included) are not essential to spiritual life: there is no better place to worship God, than in our hearts. Ever since Our Lord came and offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice for us on the cross, we ourselves are a temple made up of living stones, and in turn we make up the Body of Christ. This insight came over a period of time, in prayerful reflection over the words of Jesus, and linking them to the Scripture texts, which foretold the destruction of the Temple and the New Age. So they concluded: ‘God who created the world and all it contains, does not live in temples built by human hands’ (Acts 21,26) - ‘now we ourselves are God’s temple & his Spirit dwells in us’ (1Cor 6,19). ______________________________________ |
