The cleansing of the temple

For this third Sunday of Lent, it is timely to reflect on one of the more famous scripture passages, which the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ remember so well, not when it happened, but rather, after our Lord had died and resurrected. This passage is about the Cleansing of the Temple, which you can find in your Bibles in John 2:13-25.

“Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the moneychangers seated there. 15 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 moneychangers and overturned their tables 16 and to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”

17 His disciples recalled the words of Scripture, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18 At this the Jews answered and said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this? 19 Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. 20 The Jews said, “This Temple has been under construction for forty-six years and you will raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body.

22 Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that had said this, and they came to believe the scripture and the word Jesus had spoken. 23 While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover, many began to believe in his name when they saw the signs he was doing. 24 But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all, 25 and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well.”

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In order to get a better perspective of this highly dramatic scene where Jesus revealed his true human nature and got angry at the reality that the temple in Jerusalem has been desecrated and turned into a market place, why don’t you imagine and picture the Basilica del Santo Niño having cows and sheep and moneychangers inside the church? I’m sure you too would be appalled at the desecration going on.

But the major difference perhaps is; if that ever happens, I doubt if anyone of us would do exactly what our Lord Jesus Christ did - overturn the tables of the moneychangers and whipping the domestic animals out of the temple. Jesus got angry because he was the Son of God and therefore a stakeholder of the temple that was built for God by the Jews.

This is why our Lord believed that he had all the right to cleanse the temple from the mindless desecration. Few Catholics, even the most spiritually inclined amongst us, find it hard to believe that we are all part and parcel of the Universal Church… that the Catholic Church is not owned only by the clergy, but by all its members, which means all of us are stakeholders in this holy community. The clergy is just there to run the day to day affairs of the church, much like the way corporations are run by professional managers whose objective is to please the stakeholders or its owners.

If you haven’t noticed, in front of the main door of the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish (a.k.a Capitol Parish), there is a huge sign complete with drawings as to what women should wear inside the church. Sleeveless or spaghetti strap dresses are discouraged and wearing of veils are suggested. I fully support this move because the church is not a fashion house for women to display the latest fashion or worse, attract men with skimpy clothing. This is a reminder to all parishioners that the church is a sacred and holy place and therefore, parishioners must show some kind of respect and reverence to the house of God, lest our Lord gets angry with us again.

A deeper and a more theological meaning in today’s scripture passage is something that few of us have a deeper understanding of… that we are the temples of God. When we were baptized, we were all cleansed from Original Sin and therefore pure in the eyes of God. But as we grew older, our human nature overcomes our purity and then we commit sin.

Today, the greatest threat to humankind as Pope Benedict XVI pointed out is “the loss of our sense of sin.” In the old days, when we commit sin, we felt guilty that we have gone astray and far away from the eyes of God. But today, people steal or encourage others to steal or worse, kill because we no longer think of it as a sin.

In this season of Lent, it is time for us to reflect on where we are headed in our lives. Are we committing sin in our pursuit of happiness and prosperity? I hope not. Remember… sin is an offense against God and we must cleanse ourselves from this putrid stench of sin through the Sacrament of Reconciliation or confession, so once more we can be pleasing to the eyes of God, who has shown his total love for us by forgiving all our sins.

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