19/03/2006 - 3RD SUNDAY OF LENT - Year B
First Reading Exodus 20:1-17 Psalm 18/19
Second Reading 1Corinthians 1:22-25 Gospel John 2:13-25
We welcome the Second Commandment as an invitation to praise and bless our God
and Father! We love Him and that is why we speak with Him voluntarily and, if
we have the opportunity, we speak voluntarily about Him. We let others know
of His goodness and mercy His faithfulness and the truth of His words! We cannot
even dream of telling Him what He needs to do, as if He didn't know, or that
he might be careless or incapable of loving and forgiving; rather, we thank
Him for all that happens: beautiful and good. But we also accept those things
that bring us suffering and which He allows and, we look for His assistance
and support in all our needs. The Psalms are of great help to us in expressing
our praise to God and in understanding, in every situation, His intervention
which saves, purifies, renews, corrects, consoles and helps us to grow. We look
for the most beautiful words when speaking about Him and what words might be
more beautiful than His own? That is why we use the words given to us by the
Holy Scriptures to express our praise and thanksgiving! "Praise the Lord!
How good it is to sing praises to Our God; for He is gracious, and a song of
praise is fitting." (Psalm 147). We can learn from all the saints, particularly
from Our Blessed Mother Mary: "My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit
exults in God, my Saviour!...The Lord has done great things in me, and holy
is His name"! If we pray with the Church, we pray the Psalms, the Word
of God, every day; and by praising the Lord this way, our knowledge of Him will
grow and life within us will mature!
What ideas do we have of God? How do we imagine Him to be? No, we don't want
to imagine God because, then, we will build an image which is not true. We can,
and we must, only listen to Him, welcome His Word and obey Him. Then, and only
then, will we know how great is His love and His wisdom. We will then be able
to meet Him by presenting Him with our praise and our wishes. We can respond
by offering our willingness our help in realizing His wishes! The Word, which
we hear as we continue along the path of the Baptism of the Catechumens, shows
us one of the most decisive moments in the lives of the people of Israel: God
reveals His precepts! These are the foundation of man's personal, familial and
social life, just as God "dreamed" it to be so that man might truly
be God's "image and likeness"! From these ten Words, we begin to know
God! We will know Him, not as a stranger, as an abject to be observed from a
distance, but as someone who is part of our life, committed to our existence,
in our innermost being; better yet, who keeps us in His heart! We'll know Him
as a bride knows her groom, jealous with a beautiful and welcome jealousy, because
He wants us to respond to His love, exclusively. His jealousy is not selfish;
it is the concern that we will not to be fooled by those who are attracted to
us solely for the purpose of using us and deceiving us. We will know Him as
a child knows his own father and mother, with the same tenderness and inadequacy.
Our knowledge of God will never be equal, it will never be complete; it will
never end!
Jesus, upon arriving to Jerusalem, realizes that the temple presents a strange
spectacle to the pilgrims who come up: it has become a market for animals offered
as sacrifice to God! The faithful who come in do not see the love of the God
of Israel, which is given freely, but the longing for the financial gain of
those who should be the go-between with God. Those who come to pray are given
the impression that the love of God must be bought, and that man cannot meet
God directly; only through their wallet. The image of God that is given is that
of a shop owner or friend of the wealthy: a disgusting image!
Jesus, knowing that He is the Son of God; therefore, having authority in that
Place, wants anyone who comes into the temple to know God as Father, and to
recognize His tender, faithful and marvellous love! Peacefully, but decisively
and firmly, He alienates the shop owners, the money changers and their merchandise.
He is like Moses, when he beat the golden calf which, as we say, gave the people
the idea of the power of money; that with money, you can have everything, even
happiness, when you have money. There is no worse fallacy! Gold is not the answer
to the needs of man! As well, Jesus knows that in the temple of stone, artistic
and beautiful as that may be, man will never encounter the fullness of the love
of the Father. Enjoyment of His immense love is only possible through Him, through
His life, which was freely and lovingly given for the sake of love. He is the
true Temple of God, the place where we can come together with the perfection
of the eternal and faithful love of the Father! When this Temple can be rebuilt
beyond death, which strikes fear in everyone, it is there, that everyone can
get close to Him every day to be loved and to be capable of loving! The crucified
Jesus has risen and is truly "the power and the wisdom of God"!