Gospel: John 2:13-22
13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers seated at their tables. 15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!’ 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’
18 The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign can you show us for doing this?’19 Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ 20 The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’21 But he was speaking of the temple of his body.
22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
Am I that temple?
Throughout human history, different nations built shrines, alters and temples where they fed their gods by offering them animal and/or human sacrifices. This was their way of honoring their gods, asking for their blessings, and trying to appease their wrath.
Later in history, and according to the Biblical concept, the temple became the very place where God lived among his people. This was where the faithful were ordered to honor God by offering animal sacrifices and by entering the temple to renew their faith and commitment to God. The Ark of the Covenant, located in the Holy of Holies inside the temple, which contained the Ten Commandments, manna from the desert and Aaron's staff, became the center of the spiritual, cultural and national identity of the nation. It became the symbol of faith, faithfulness, commitment and obedience to the Covenant. It was the holiest place on earth that must be honored and respected. I Kings 8:27, “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!"
The first temple was destroyed and the second temple that Jesus knew was under Roman occupation. It's courtyards became a marketplace more than a sanctuary of holiness and spiritual renewal. This is where and when Jesus had to intervene, reminding them of the sanctity of the temple and their due reverence.
Jesus took a further and most important step forward. This temple that was made of luxurious stones and cedarwood was holy, but now Jesus's body is the holiest temple. Ephesians 2:19-22, "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit." His body that was offered for our salvation is his church according to St. Paul's theology. From the very beginning, this church congregation started to meet and celebrate Jesus's body in a church building.
I Corinthians 6:19-20, "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies."
We are temples of Christ through our baptism. During this time when many of us cannot physically be in our churches because of the pandemic, may we remember that we are the church. God lives in us and we are his own. This Sunday, we are invited to symbolically enter this congregation-church temple that was built upon the apostolic faith and to enter our own personal temple for a private encounter with the Lord.
Why enter both temples?
To reciprocate God's love as a creator and as a father/mother.
To reconsider our commitment to his merciful love.
To listen to his word before presenting our needs.
To know God and to know about God.
To unify our knowledge with his presence and loving care through our acts.
This is how we are granted the grace of being God's temple today.
The church includes this reading on the second Sunday of Lent to remind us to cleanse our temple as we prepare to celebrate Easter.
Am I this temple!?
Father Kamal March 7, 2021