What's the Condition of God's Temple?

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Lent, Year B

St. Gerard Majella Church

Baton Rouge, LA, USA

March 8, 2015

Anger is not always a bad thing. It’s something like cholesterol: some anger is good, some bad. In today’s gospel (John 2:13-25), Jesus confronts wrongdoing in a very significant way, with a good anger. He had just performed his first miracle at Cana in Galilee and needed to go to the Temple in Jerusalem to pray. When he arrived there, he was shocked to find that the House of God, the House of Prayer was no longer being used for worship and prayer. He did not find people in prayer, or the Levites and Priests carrying out their ministries, or the choir rehearsing songs for worship. He did not see any religious activity in the Temple. Rather, he saw merchants, traffickers, money-changers, buyers and sellers, people who seemed interested in only one thing: amassing money. He became angered, not because of what they were doing, but because of where they were doing it. The old law required animal sacrifice, so the availability of the proper animals for purchase wasn't the issue, the issue was turning the act of worship into a commercial, profit-driven enterprise. The selling of sacrificial animals inside the Temple, for the purpose of making money made a mockery of a sacred act. 

Jesus was not against trading or making money. He was upset that the house of God had been turned into a marketplace. He was upset that the people he met there were not ready for any religious activity. Traders were selling their goods. Animals like oxen, sheep, and pigeons were being sold. Money-changers were also wrapped up in their own business of changing money. When Jesus saw all of this, he was so disappointed. When he looked at what was going on in the house of God, he saw cheating and deception; he saw lies being cooked and served to the unsuspecting people; he saw land-grabbers plotting to uproot and unsettle the widows. Jesus saw that evil and wickedness had entered the House of God. He saw that the religious leaders were drinking, toasting wines and getting drunk. He could not believe that the same Temple that took forty six years to build was now being abused and misused. The purpose and the sacredness of the temple was being undermined. If God’s house would be treated that way, what did it say about the people? Jesus was amazed at their irreligiousness and their lack of the sense of the sacredness and mystery of their house of worship.

Today, we no longer use animals for sacrifice, there is no more selling of animals for sacrifices on the steps of our churches, but the temptation to turn faith into a moneymaking and profitable venture is still with us. Today, as it was in Jesus’ time, there is wealth to be made in religion and spirituality. Unfortunately, some have used Christianity as a means of making money. Evidence abounds of Christian preachers who have inordinately enriched themselves—even sometimes at the detriment of their flock. They live lavish lifestyles, live in multi-million dollar homes, travel on private jets they bought for themselves and have ever-growing fat bank accounts. In their churches, they are among the richest. They use biblical texts to exploit their gullible congregation out of their hard earned money, just for their comfort alone. Even for those of us who don’t monetarily profit directly from our faith, there is still a pull to make coming to Mass on Sunday just another thing we do every week, instead of a true act of worship. Mass attendance should not be for the purpose of fulfilling a requirement, but a genuine act of worship, praise, and thanksgiving to God. And when we come to Mass, there is also the temptation of being distracted by worldly affairs, more concerned with what we or someone else is wearing. Some even slip out early from church, before the end of Mass so that they can get on with what they consider as “real life,” as if spending time in church with others to worship an Awesome God is something unreal and out of order. But in today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches us that the time we give to God needs to be given freely and fully and without being compromised by anything else. The time we spend at Mass should be the highlight of our week. The book of Psalm 84:10 says, “A day in the house of God is better than thousands elsewhere.”  King David in Psalm 122:1 says, “I rejoiced when I heard them say, ‘let us go to the house of the Lord.”

Sisters and brothers, God’s temple is not just the Church building where we gather together to worship. We are the Temple of God. In 2 Corinthians 3: 16-17, St. Paul says: “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him (or her); for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.” 1 Corinthians 6: 19 also says that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. The temple of God is not only the common house of prayers, as a matter of fact, a church building can be sold. We can worship anywhere; we can worship in the outside, in the field, in soccer play ground, we can worship in a university auditorium. Since we are the temple of God, will Jesus find us watchful in prayer, spiritually alert and vigilant when he visits his temple? In what condition would he find us? Will the Lord find his temple chaotic, unkempt, and unready to receive him? Will he find us in the same situation he found those in today’s gospel? Will he find us buying and selling, merchandizing, getting busy with only the things of this world? Will he find us heavily occupied with our careers and professions and less interested in God’s matters? When he calls us, where will we answer from? What will be the state of our life? Is he going to find his temple habitable, pure and decent?