Third Sunday in Lent, March 3, 2024

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When is anger wrong and when is it appropriate? / What is God’s house in our time like?

John 2:13–25

Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money changers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”

His disciples recalled the words of Scripture, Zeal for your house will consume me.

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.

Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.

While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, many began to believe in his name when they saw the signs he was doing. But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all, and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well.

Music Meditations

Opening Prayer

Excerpted from a Jewish prayer in A Lent Sourcebook from LTP Publications

Master of life and Lord of Lords, we do not rely on our own good deeds, but on your great mercy as we lay our need before you. Lord, hear! Lord, pardon! Lord, listen and act! What are we? What is our life? What is our love? What is our justice? What is our success? What is our endurance? What is our power? To you, most of our actions are pointless and daily life is shallow. Even our superiority over the beasts nothing… for everything is trivial except the pure soul which must one day give its account and reckoning before the judgement of your glory. Lord, hear! Lord, pardon!

Companions for the Journey

We are in the midst of our Lenten reflection and discipline. On our own, our inadequacies and sin seem to stare us in the face. We are looking in a mirror with ourselves looking back. We want to turn away with a sense of incompletion. Will we ever get our act together, we ask ourselves halfway through Lent? But the scriptures won’t let us get bogged down in self pity, or even embarrassment. They reveal a God of mercy and power today, something the scriptures continually do for us.

All four gospels have the story of Jesus cleansing the temple. The threes synoptic gospels have the event at the end of Jesus’ ministry, where it is an affront to the religious authorities. As a result they conspire to have Jesus killed. John has another purpose in mind. He places the story at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. It is Passover time when Jesus drives the merchants out of the temple area. At Passover time Jews traveled to Jerusalem to observe the feast with purification rituals and then festivals. Jesus is performing another kind of purification for a different temple.

What about those merchants doing business in the Temple precincts? They served an important function in the daily activities of the Temple. Animal merchants sold the creatures that were to be sacrificed. Jews could not use the Roman, or Greek, coins in the Temple because they had images on them with captions calling Caesar divine. It would be blasphemy to take those coins into the Temple. So money changers helped convert the “street money” into Jewish currency to pay the Temple tax. While necessary, prophets like Zechariah, yearned for the day when there would be “no longer traders in the house of the Lord” (Zech 14:21)

There are many reasons we build temples and holy places. Some are even erected for vain glory, paid for by the well-endowed and established. They have their name plates on the walls and pews honoring their generosity. There is much to cleanse in our temples that seem to favor one group of people over another. But temples are primarily built to honor the God we worship and who dwells among us. We go to those places, those “holy places,” to remind us how close God is, the God who listens to our prayers and is present among us everywhere, not just in buildings and memorials.

That’s what the Temple was for the Jews, the place where God dwelt in the heart of the community of believers. It drew the devout to pay tribute to God. The First Temple had been destroyed and, from the text, the Second Temple was still under construction in Jesus’ time. In the year 70 it was also destroyed by the Romans. (The main remnant is the outer western wall, the Wailing Wall, where today people from all over the world come to pray.) The physical Temple was destroyed. The true temple of God’s presence, Jesus Christ, would also be destroyed. But, as he promised, he would be raised up after three days.

Jesus referred to his body as a temple where the Holy Spirit dwells. We are joined to Christ through our baptism and so the body of Christians is also a temple of the living and present God. Lent offers a focused time to reflect on what makes our “house of prayer,” our bodies, unclean and in need of cleansing? What makes our church body unclean: recent sex scandals; divisions caused by attacks on the pope; local congregations’ attitudes towards newcomers; splits because of economic differences; clericalism, etc.?

The opposition to Jesus asked, “What sign can you show us for doing this? They wanted external proof of his authority. But their faith was not based on faith in Jesus and his mission. Later, in John (6:26-31), the crowds will see the sign of the multiplication of the loaves and will follow him. But they didn’t see the deeper significance of the sign when Jesus explained it to them. As a result his disciples “broke away and would not remain in his company any longer” (6:61).

There’s a Lenten reflection for us. Is our faith just skin deep, needing reassuring signs to keep us believing? Shall we invite the Spirit of Jesus to enter our temple to drive out what is superficial about our faith; what relies on daily reassurance and can even evaporate when life tests us with economic stress, sickness, family strife, aging, social disorder, etc?

Did you notice that Jesus doesn’t refer to his Father’s “temple,” but to “my Father’s house?” What do you think he is suggesting about what our place of worship should be like? Is it God’s house and has an “open door” policy. When Jesus drives the merchants from the Temple grounds his disciples recall a line from the Psalms (69): “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Jesus, a messianic prophet, has come to purify the “house” that is his people. Did you come from a family that welcomed guests and newcomers to your table? Was it a “house” where outsiders felt at home even though they did not have economic or social influence? Where guests were not of your family’s race, or national origins...yet felt welcomed and at home?

Jesus’ opponents want a sign that will authorize his actions. He returned with a challenge, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. The implication is that there are destructive forces already in the temple that would destroy it, like the negative forces that corrode our church. So, what sign will Jesus give them that authorizes his messianic actions? He promised he will raise up the destroyed temple in three days. He is not speaking of stone and mortar, but to the temple that is his body. He is looking ahead to his resurrection and to us disciples recalling his words. Jesus has authority in this “house” because he is resurrected from the dead. Who are we? We, the baptized, are the “home,” that welcome all to his table. We are by no means fully cleansed but, staying in the house of God, we are being cleansed as individuals and a church.

Further reflection:

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Zeal for your house will consume me

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

  • Does the thought of an angry Jesus make me uncomfortable?
  • There were two issues that might have angered Jesus as he saw what was going on in the temple precincts that day. First, people were using a holy, sacred place for commerce, desecrating it for profit; in addition, the prices charged for the sacrificial animals and the exchange rate to purchase coins acceptable in the temple were excessive, and very burdensome for the poor. Which do you think angered Jesus more?
  • It takes time to make a whip of cords. What does that say about Jesus’ reaction to the goings-on in the temple precincts?
  • Are people measured by what angers them?
  • What makes me angry?
    Was my anger appropriate?
    When does anger become sinful?
    What disgusts me?
    Can disgust be sinful?
    How often is my anger the result of someone violating my air space, economic space, my rights?
    How often is my anger the result of mistreatment of others, such as the poor or the homeless?
  • What things anger me because I think they anger God?
    What things SHOULD anger me because I think they anger God?
    What things anger me that do not, upon reflection, necessarily anger God?
  • What is righteous indignation?
    In what instances do I express righteous indignation?
    How do I do so?
    Are these instances personal affronts or insults to me and mine, or are they caused by persons or situations endemic to our culture?
  • What is the connection between anger and violence?
    Are you bothered by Jesus’ violent reaction in the temple?
  • How hard is it to deal with anger appropriately?
  • Have we ever known of churches or other entities that made a profit on people’s piety?
    What about the commercial aspects of many of our sacraments and Catholic funerals?
  • Should personal/corporate profit and religion mix?
  • When you see people exploiting others, does it make you angry?
    Can you think of any men or women who called out religious or civil authorities for the ways in which they gouged the poor?
    What sort of price did they pay?
  • What is a Temple of God?
    How was Jesus referring to himself when he spoke of the Temple of God?
  • In what ways am I a Temple of God?
    What do I need to cleanse from the temple that is my body so that it can house God?
  • What do I think was Jesus’ purpose in coming into the world?
    What is mine?
  • What do I understand “zeal for the Lord’s house” to mean?
    What can I do to cultivate same?
    Does this “zeal” impel me to action?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination

Adapted from Sacred Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

In imagination I stand in the Temple courtyard, as the young Rabbi from Galilee enters. I notice the courtyard, the sounds, the smells, the rattle of coins on the tables, the reek and cries of the animals. I watch Jesus, see the blood rush to his face. He has come to reverence the temple and to pray. Instead he finds all the focus is on business. Suddenly I sense a whirlwind of anger as he whips the hucksters and scatters their money. This is a new side of Jesus and it shakes me. I stay with it. What drives his anger? Have I ever been angry at a wrong or an injustice? How did I handle it? I speak to Jesus about the times I did not respond appropriately to injustice, either losing control or failing to be bothered enough to speak up for fer of reprisals. I speak to Jesus about the times I was angry but only on my own behalf, feeling dismissed, ignored or criticized harshly. I ask for strength to stand up for causes and people that need defending, and ask for forgiveness when my anger was immature or self serving.

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

Adapted from a homily by Fr. William Bausch:

Time to turn the tables and set up new ones! Here are five suggestions:

  1. Love only what is worth loving. What in my life is worth my love? What is not?
  2. Put first things first. What in my life do I prioritize?
  3. Cultivate spiritual insight. What are the ultimate spiritual truths for me? Be honest. (Write them down and look at them all week)
  4. Strive for integrity of conscience. What compromises my integrity? What rationalizations and excuses do I feed myself?
  5. Enlist in a cause that benefits the community or the world, not just my family and friends. Pick a cause (suggestions: CRS, Catholic Worker House, Redwood City, Bread for the World. Your local PTA, Meals on Wheels, to name a few) How wil I support that cause, starting NOW?
A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

Read the following excerpts from Psalm 139, expressing that we are also a temple of God. Then write your own psalm, asking Jesus to tell you things about yourself that will help you grow in Him. Ask Him to still your mind and heart so that you can hear His words:

O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!

Poetic Reflection:

Often people use the story of Jesus’ cleansing the temple as an excuse for their intemperate responses to what others do. Mary, Queen of Scots, had a different prayer:

Keep us, O God, from all pettiness.
Let us be large in thought, in word, in deed.
Let us be done with fault-finding and leave off all self-seeking.
May we put away all pretense and meet each other face-to-face,
Without self pity and without prejudice.
May we never be hasty in judgment, always generous.
Let us take time for all things, and make us grow calm, serene, and gentle.
Teach us to put into action our better impulses, to be straight-forward and unafraid.
Grant that we may realize that it is the little things of life that create differences,
That in the big things of life we are one.
And, Lord, God, let us not forget to be Kind.

Where do I need to be patient with others who are ruining their lives or the lives of others?

Poetic Reflection:

This is a slightly different take on how Jesus feels about the behavior of humans:

Slowly, slowly
Comes Christ through the garden
Speaking to the sacred trees
Their branches bear his light
Without harm

Slowly, slowly
Comes Christ through the ruins
Seeking the lost disciple
A timid one
Too literate
To believe words
So he hides
Christ rises on the cornfields
It is only the harvest moon
The disciple
Turns over in his sleep
And murmurs:
“My regret!”

The disciple will awaken
When he knows history
But slowly, slowly
The Lord of History weeps into the fire

—Thomas Merton “Cables to the Ace” (stanza 80)

Closing Prayer

Keep me, above all things, from sin.
Stanch me in the rank wound of covetousness
And the hungers that exhaust my nature with their bleeding.
Stamp out the serpent envy that stings love with poison
And kills all joy.
Untie my hand and deliver my heart from sloth.

Set me free from the laziness that goes about disguised
as activity
when activity is not required of me,
and the cowardice that does what is not demanded,
in order to escape sacrifice.

And then to wait in peace and emptiness and oblivion
Of all things.

—Kyrie by Thomas Merton in Book of Hours