Gospel: Lk 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.
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In the previous episode, Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem because it did not recognize the time of her visitation (cf Lk 19:44). The prophet Malachi had forewarned of the suddenness of the Lord’s coming to his temple, and so asked the people for repentance and reconciliation (cf Mal 3:1, 24).
The people whom Jesus finds, however, continue their business of selling and buying inside the Temple, confident of God’s protection because they have the Temple of the Lord, and the Lord himself is in their midst.
Jesus moves from weeping over Jerusalem to demonstrating how unprepared the people of the city are for the moment of God’s visitation. He drives out the vendors and money changers who have turned the Temple into a house of business. Jesus then devotes the time before his passion to teaching in the temple area. But he has antagonized the chief priests and the scribes who, more than ever, seek his death.
If Jesus were to enter our churches today, would he find them places of prayer or “dens of thieves”?
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SOURCE: “365 Days with the Lord,” ST PAULS, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 895-9701; Fax 895-7328; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.
