15/03/2009 - 3rd. Sunday in Lent
- B
1st. Reading Ex 20,1-17 Psalm 18 2nd. Reading 1 Cor 1,22-25 Gospel Jn 2,13-25
Jesus, teaching us to pray, adds immiadiately to the word "Father"
, "our". He doesn't want us to think, not even for one second, that
we are alone in the world, nor of simply being alone in front of God. He is
the creator of all, therefore he holds all men in his heart. How are they in
his heart? Because they are his creatures! This is how the Bible prays: "You
love all existing things and do not despise anything of what you have created"
(Sir 11, 24). God loves his creatures; they are work of his hands. Then from
the moment we have accepted Jesus as Lord, the Father loves us like his sons:
"To all who have accepted him, he gave them the power to become his sons:
to those who believe in his name" (Jn 1, 12). When we say Our Father as
if we are representing all the peoples of the world, or we can apply that our
to the circle of the baptized members of the Church only. In the first place,
our prayer is to the one who created all men and we are brothers to all, committed
to love every single person we met without asking what do they believe. In this
way we can see the love the Father has towards every human creature. On the
other hand, considering that our as a reference to the members of the Church,
we see the love of the Father for Jesus and for ourselves, as members of the
Body of Christ, sent into the world to witness to his Son. It is very important
for us to feel that we present all peoples before God, even those who do not
know him yet as Father, and who do not know yet that they are his beloved. As
much as it is important that we consider ourselves sons of God in as much as
we belong to the Church: We are called to proclaim his fatherhood, offering
to all men the name of Jesus, his beloved Son, so that they call upon his name
and be saved!
When Paul was writing there was a separation between the Jewish world and other
peoples, a separation known to God. The Jews were sure of the monotheistic faith,
while all the others, in their uncertainty, were serving many deities, even
those not known. The Jews, who have experienced the presence of a God who protects
his people, who had made a covenant with them, use to pride in his greatness
and were sure that God was to show himself with signs, wonders and miracles.
The others, the pagans, had power in their reasoning, which gave space to their
miracles; others were at peace with the systems of their philosophies that showed
them right in their convictions. St. Paul tells the early Christians that were
from both Jews and gentiles, living together: "We proclaim Jesus Crucified".
It does not matter if we are considered foolish, unable to reason, or even considered
evil. God's wisdom has its own way to men's hearts: God in fact has given us
and showed us his greatness, and therefore his glory, in the love Jesus lived
up to the cross.
Jesus thought of the cross when he was entering the temple in Jerusalem. He
knew that the true temple of God, the place of his presence and manifestation,
was he himself: he was therefore suffering that the place which was suppose
to be a place of worship was brought low to a market place and a place of gain.
It was meant to be the sign and the prophecy to prepare the hearts for his worship
and separates the desires of this from richness and money. Instead it was transformed
into a place of attachment to wealth and money. The rage of Jesus might take
us by surprise. But it is a rage that should be our own because of what we do
ourselves. We were created upon God's likeness and image, even so to be his
sons and daughters; instead, by disobeying his teachings, we live crooked lives.
We hold that we are sons of God, but if someone would want to know the Father
listening to the way we speak and live, they would be forced to think of lord,
or to a speculative god. The First Reading gives us counsels or commandments
that if they are obeyed, they protect our personal, familiar and social lives
from going astray from both the Father and men. The Ten Commandments! How many
suffering we can avoid if we do what God commands us to do! He gives us his
commandments for our good, to spare us those tribulations by which our society
is made. If we have only to think how less we suffer if we had to obey to the
sixth commandment "Do not commit adultery": how many children would
have the security of their parents' presence and the reciprocal love of the
parents, how many families would be still united, how many men and women would
be at peace, even though they would have to suffer a defect of the partner,
how many children and young would be happy, without the atrocious suffering
of being abused by their own family members and other relatives. If there is
obedience to the commandment "You should not steal", won't we live
more at peace without thinking of putting a lock in every corner, or hide everything,
including the heart? When we proclaim Christ Crucified, we want to carry the
cross, that same cross we put on our shoulders because of our sins!