Third Sunday of Lent, Yr B. March 3, 2024.
Readings
1st: Exodus 20:1-17
2nd: I Corinthians 1:22-25
Gospel: John 2:13-25
Theme: Serve God In The Neighbour
My dear people of God, today is Third Sunday of Lent, Yr B. Our reflections would focus on the Theme. Our First Reading of today reminds us of the "Love Contract" (Covenant) God entered into with the Israelites, popularly referred to as the Ten Commandments. It is important to note that the Ten Commandments were not the first code of ethics written in the Ancient Near East. However, this particular code is different from any other because it involves the reality of life. In fact, the Ten Commandments are the core of the law of the Jewish Scriptures. They presume the special covenantal relationship between God and His people, and it is this that makes them timeless. One thing conspicuously particular about the Ten Commandments is their distributions. Only (the first) three regulate our relationship with God. The remaining seven are about our relationship with the neighbour. What it simply means is that the sincerity of our love of God (we do not see) is directly tested and assessed by how much we love the neighbour (we see). In one short sentence, the Ten Commandments, and, in fact, the Bible in its entirety, means Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor (two times the love of God, plus one). Actually, what the Incarnation (God with us) means is that one cannot walk pass and/or neglect a neighbour and go in search of God. That will amount to hypocrisy. The right understanding of every good law (meant to regulate the conscience and behavior of people in the right frame of thinking to ensure peace) and its proper application to please God and sanctify humanity is what today's Gospel is all about. To create financial hardship, endorse and promote open corruption in the name of a religious law is what Jesus physically condemns and angrily seeks to correct. The scene at the Temple which made Jesus to do what He did is still the same, if not worse, in some Christian churches where ignorant and already suffering followers are literally forced with pure lies and deception to pay hugely for every minute service of the pastor.
The Temple at this time was the religious, social and commercial center of the city and provided the livelihood of about 20% of the entire Jerusalem's population. It would help a great deal to put things in proper context as to why Jesus did what he did. It was the time of earnest preparations for the Pentecost, an annual feast that Jews all over the world who aged nineteen and above were expected by law to attend. Two things were expected of every pilgrim: payment of the Temple tax and provision of animals for sacrifices. Two (unChristian) practices caught the eye of Jesus: any money that was not the imageless Jewish shekels was not accepted for taxes. In other words, any currency with a graven image, especially that of Caesar, was violently rejected. So, there were money changers who openly cheated those coming from diaspora and had to exchange the shekels to enable them pay the Temple tax. By implication, any other currency depreciated very badly against the Jewish shekel and pilgrims paid at highly inflated exchange rates to get the shekels. The system did not also allow pilgrims bringing their own animals for sacrifices. Any animal brought outside the Temple court was "screened" by an authorised inspector who determined whether it was fit for sacrifice or not. The result of such "screening" was predictable by the "power holders" of the Temple. In a subtle way, therefore, pilgrims were compelled to buy animals in the Temple court at very exorbitant prices, three times the normal price outside. In effect, religion which, in essence and purpose, should promote the quality of human life, became a big burden for the vast majority and a lucrative source of amassing cheap wealth for the minority religious elite. This is what angered Jesus. For Jesus It is simony and sacrilegious to confuse religion with business, as is still the case in many Christian denominations at our own time. When one considers the influence, power and authority wielded by the Temple officials - the priests and scribes who form the religious elite - one cannot but wonder where Jesus got the audacity to do what he did. Jesus' action was not only an open defiance of the Temple authorities but also a direct attack on all the three arms of the Temple governance - the legislature, the judiciary and the executive, all in one. This will trigger off the beginning of acrimony and mounting hostilities against him. Many Christ-like Christians at our own time still suffer similar fate for openly condemning and attacking dirty businesses such as abortion, drugs, "backdoor" processes at our passport and licence offices and in the job markets, child trafficking, ritual and politically instigated murders, shameless extortion of money from candidates in our learning institutions, etc.
St. Paul, in our Second Reading of today, had his own share of similar hostilities at his own time among his own people. Both Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews) among whom the apostle is ministering at this time had a radically different meaning and perspective of life from what St. Paul preached - the heart of the Christian message, the Cross. It was a scandal for the Jews to even imagine that God's chosen Son could be excuted as a criminal. The conceived Messiah was one who would come with a sophisticated political power to fight and wipe off every enemy and restore the humiliated and scatterd Jewish nation to its original dignity. For the non-Jews, it would be lunacy for God's Son to be crucified. Christians with similar sceptical attitudes are still many in the Church today. They profess Christ in theory (words) but in practice deny, or at best, doubt the reality of the Cross. Any Christian message that does not trace its authority and authenticity to the Cross is fake and cannot preach "love of God and love of neighbor", which is the finest summary of the Holy Bible in its entirety. May God give us grace to believe in our hearts what we say and sing with our lips and practise and show forth in our daily lives what we believe in our hearts. Please, continue to Pray, Fast and Love/Share. Recite the Holy Rosary daily. God richly bless you and your family.
Rev. Fr. Thomas L. Debuo - Catholic Diocese of Damongo, Ghana. (0244511306/0243711926)