How to be or become a follower of Jesus Christ in the world and in your situation«It is written, 'My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.'».
Jesus whips and pushes sellers and money changers out of the Temple
Our Lord, usually meek as he himself says (Matthew 11:25-30) becomes indignant, gets angry and passes, as they say, to the deeds. He makes a whip of cords and chases the sellers of doves and other merchandise from the Temple of Jerusalem, overturns the money changers' stalls.
Yet many of them offered the faithful and pilgrims what they needed; for example the sellers of the doves that were offered as sacrifices, or the money changers who changed the money of the pilgrims who poured their mite into the treasury of the Temple.
Certainly Jesus did not harm people, but he was indignant only the object of the exaggerated trade, the outrage done to the most sacred place for the Jews of the time. The Temple of Jerusalem was in fact profaned by the exaggeration of the businesses that took place there which were no longer a useful service to pilgrims but had become a pure market.
THE HOLY PLACES, DESTINATIONS OF CHRISTIAN PILGRIMAGES
Even today we run the risk of transforming a holy place into something inappropriate for the place itself. All around such as in 'Lourdes' or 'Fatima' or even in 'Medjugorje' and where did happen some events involving faith and religion, certainly arise commercial activities or even speculations. However, in all those cases that I have mentioned above, there is always someone who welcomes and serves, so that the place is welcoming and the sanctity of the place itself is shared by as many people as possible.
But I don't think that this kind of thing is what today's Gospel passage refers to, or at least it's not mainly and only this.
Indeed, I think that in certain cases, such as in Medjugorje for example, I dare to say that the Lord perhaps wanted to lift the people of that place out of poverty, because that, through the material contributions of pilgrims, they were taken out of misery and became prosperous.
LET?S AVOID BEING MERCHANTS FROM THE TEMPLE, THE THOSE WHO JESUS DRIVES OUT
Instead, I believe that Our Lord wants to refer to us, both lay and religious, that is, to all the faithful believers who form the Church of which we are an integral part.
Jesus, who must be the example to inspire us in our actions, never got involved in politics, nor did he go to 'pimp' with the powerful of the time, nor was he interested in the financial aspects of his apostolate.. Jesus has acted in the consciences of single individuals, showing them the way to be worthy of Him. The chest of the group of disciples was held by Judas Iscariot, the one who then betrayed him.
Despite being the creator of the Church, Jesus never behaved as a 'clerical', in the sense that the detractors of religions understand it today, and in particular the enemies of the Catholic Church, for whom this word indicates an act in a derogatory sense.
Do we ordinary faithful run the risk of this type of inferior 'clericalism' today?
This word, as I have already said above, is exploited by materialists and by the enemies of religion. With regard to any religion, the word can indicate an action in a political sense that aims at safeguarding and attaining the spiritual interests of the faithful, and obviously also at guaranteeing the clergy the material means to achieve that scope.
It seems obvious to me that these actions and interests, both material and spiritual, are perfectly legitimate and normal for any religious group worthy of the name. On the contrary, materialists understand the word only in the 'inferior' sense, i.e. in the fact that clericalism takes the form of an attempt to weaken the secularism of a state through direct intervention in the political and administrative sphere of civil society by the clergy, its supporters and of the faithful.
Jesus who is our example, never did this, nor did he ever tell anyone to do it. Therefore none of us members of the Catholic Church, despite the legitimate diversity of political ideas, should be a 'clerical' in the worst sense in which the enemies of religion understand it.
In politics, the separation between temporal power and spiritual power must be absolutely guaranteed, to guarantee the freedom of all to whatever connfession or group they belong.
Individually each of us can be or become a 'clerical' in the worst sense, when we take advantage of our faith for our own interests and to mind our own business.
In the small, this is the case in which, for example, a merchant who has a shop in certain places that I mentioned above raises the prices of food or other disproportionately.
Instead, as far as big interests are concerned, there may be those who dishonestly use the Church to do their own business.
This is therefore a fact that belongs to the conscience of the individual, it is dishonesty, a moral offence.
It is obvious that settling the lawful from the unlawful as regards big interests is no different from other cases, only that the judgment is much more complex to define.
Therefore, as Pope Francis has often underlined, those who run this risk the most are all those, both religious and consecrated laymen, who, in order to keep the assembly of the faithful united and 'govern', carry out duties and functions which are all important realities in the Church itself.
In many of these the risk is great, i.e. one can lose sight of the purpose and work exclusively for the organization itself and for the people who belong to it, regardless of the purpose for which it was created, or trespass towards that bad directions to which the materialists refer.
I think it is crucial for each of us who are faithful Christians, great or small, beeing important or not in the Church, to avoid trying to take advantage of religion illicitly to do our own business, to achieve disproportionate personal advantages to the detriment of others.
The second message of today's Gospel contains the elevation, through grace, of man's heart to the dignity of God's temple. When Jesus replies to the Jews: "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it again", he was referring to the His body. When he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and finally they began to understand who Jesus was and they believed the Scripture and the word spoken by him.
However, it took the intervention of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost for them to finally fully understand it.
End of commentary
HISTORICAL NOTE
The temple of stones represents the temple which is the body of Jesus, and then before the coming of Jesus it was the very presence of God among men. The Temple of Jerusalem had to disappear, it would be reduced to dust, as Jesus had foretold on the day of his crucifixion. But a New Temple would be built with living stones, and Jesus would be the cornerstone.
THE FIRST TEMPLE - Solomon's temple. Built from 866 to 833 BC
The Temple of Solomon or 'First Temple' was built, according to the Bible, by King Solomon in the 10th century BC. (Talmud: started building 866 BC finished 833 BC). It was completely destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar II, the Babylonian king, in 586 BC. (Talmud: the temple was destroyed 410 years after its construction, in 416 BC).
THE SECOND TEMPLE - Temple of the Maccabees, Built from 515 to 536 BC
The Second Temple was built on the return from the Babylonian exile starting from 536 BC. It was finished on March 12, 515 BC. It was reconsecrated on November 21, 164 BC. by Judas Maccabeus (see 1 Mac) after the profanation carried out by Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the Seleucids, who intended to Hellenize Palestine. The Maccabees, in fact, fought to defend their traditions and worship.
THE THIRD TEMPLE - Herod's temple (modification of the second). from 19 B.C. to 64 A.C
Today only the western retaining wall remains, commonly known as the Wailing Wall.
Herod's Temple was a major expansion of the Second Temple, including a rearrangement of the Temple Mount. It was started by Herod the Great about 19 BC. and finished in all its parts only in 64 AD.
As related by the Talmud in the tractate of Ghittin, the Second Temple was destroyed by the future emperor Titus in AC 70. (Talmud: uilt 420 years earlier and destroyed in 70 AC. Today only the western retaining wall remains, commonly known as the Wailing Wall.
ATTEMPTS TO REBUILD THE TEMPLE IN JERUSALEM
In 362 AC the emperor Julian planned to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and entrusted the task to Alypius of Antioch, former vicar prefect in Britain. Ammianus Marcellinus relates the episode thus:
"Alypius devoted himself to the work with commitment and the governor of the province helped him: but fearful fireballs that erupted near the foundations with continuous assaults, made that place inaccessible to the workers, who were sometimes burned as a result.
The fire was beating back everywhere with utter obstinacy, so the enterprise was put on hold."
(Ammianus Marcellinus,Res gestae, XXIII,1,3; trad. G. Viansino)
Don't worry ! the mercy of Jesus
is INFINITE
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 19,45-48.
Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out those who were selling things,
saying to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.'"
And every day he was teaching in the temple area. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile, were seeking to put him to death,
but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose because all the people were hanging on his words.
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
