Honour from God or from man?

Palm Sunday - Year B

We all love praises. Who is the world doesn't like praises from their friends, peers, boss, parents  etc? Perhaps, we feel good when someone posted a whole long things of good comments on your Facebook status. 

Now, let me ask you a question. 

To be praised and exalted by men or to be glorified by God? 

Which is more important? Today’s readings provides the answer. To be glorified by God – that is the most important goal of our lives. But in reality, the opposite is true. Most of us want to be praised. Most of us want to ‘save face’; we want to be liked by people around us. Most of us want to be popular. No one wants to be mocked or ridiculed. No one wants to be unpopular. No one wants to be rejected. We want to be seen as the “good guy”. 

But the truth of the matter is this: if we want to follow Jesus, we can’t always be the “good guy”, we can’t always please everyone. If we want to follow Jesus we will not always be popular. When the prevalent culture in the workplace is dishonesty, you will be singled out and ostracized for your honesty. If you are sincerely honest in all your transactions, you would most probably lose a lot of business and will not advance very quickly in your career. If you refuse to cheat in your exams while your classmates are doing so, you most probably would not get grades as good as them. If you are a faithful follower of Christ, be prepared to receive insults and even opposition from others. Be ready to be labeled foolish by your own relatives and friends. Forget about trying to be popular.

This is the way which Jesus had taken. It is the Way of the Cross instead of the Way of Glory. It is the way of humility rather than the way of self-glory. It is the way of being last instead of being first. It is the way of losing everything for the kingdom of God rather than the way of gaining everything and yet losing our lives.

This is the way of Jesus as described in today’s second reading: “His state was divine, yet Christ Jesus did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as men are, and being as all men are, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross.”

This too must be our fate if we wished to follow Jesus. If we ask the Lord for a disciple’s tongue as Isaiah did in the first reading, we must be prepared to receive all kinds of opposition and insult from others. To be a disciple of Jesus means that we would be treated like Jesus.

Having heard all this, you may feel discouraged. You may find it hard and even find it impossible to follow Jesus. Therefore, most of us are tempted to settle for a ‘soft’ version of Christianity, one which is insulated from the cross. According to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran minister and theologian who was executed by the Nazis for his refusal to subordinate the Church to the state machinery, “Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” The truth is, it isn’t easy following Jesus. Bonhoeffer reminds us: “Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace.”

The palms which you carried at the beginning of the mass can also be found in Christian iconography – in the hands of countless of martyrs who willingly gave up their lives for their faith. Placed in their hands, the Church acknowledges that they paid the price of discipleship not just in words and nice plenitudes, but by their lives. This is the costly grace which Bonhoeffer wrote about and the cost all Christians must be prepared to pay if we wish to be true to the vision and mission which Christ has offered us. It is fitting testimony that in suffering and death, the martyrs found true glory in the eyes of God. Thus, our consolation is that the Lord will be our strength and our support. Isaiah assures us of this: “The Lord comes to my help, so that I am untouched by the insults.” We are also reassured by the promise of Jesus that if we share in his death, we will also share in his glory. In spite of the rejection and humiliation Jesus received from the hands of men, St. Paul in the second reading assures us that “God raised him high and gave him the name which is above all other names”. To be glorified by God is far greater and far more important than any insults or rejection we may receive from men. To receive the gift of eternal life is far more precious than holding on to the passing years we have in our earthly life.

As we begin Holy Week, let us follow Jesus as he enters Jerusalem. Let us remain faithful to him even when the going gets tough. Let us take up our crosses and follow him. We can do this because we know and we believe that at the end of our journey, we will receive the crown of glory from the hands of Jesus who gave his life for us on the cross. This is the crown paid for with the price of the blood of the Son of God – a costly grace indeed!

Incarnation in the flesh

Solemnity of the Annunciation 

We are nine months away from Christmas and today’s Gospel is announcing the conception of Jesus through the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Yes, today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Annunciation. We see the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy and the unfolding of God's plan of redemption in the events leading up to the Incarnation, the birth of the Messiah King. The new era of salvation begins with the miraculous conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary. This child to be born is conceived by the gracious action of the Holy Spirit upon Mary. As Eve was the mother of all humanity doomed to sin, now Mary becomes the mother of the new Adam- the Mother of God. 

Perhaps, due to attacks from Protestants, we have become embarrassed of such titles being accorded to Mary or to any other human person. How could a creature be deemed as the mother of her Creator? How could a mere human give birth to God? How could Mary call as the Mother of God? And yet, it is precisely this preposterous belief that forms the basis for our celebration of Christmas. God did not become man in a vacuum. He did not beam himself down from the heavenly heights and materialise in human form. At Christmas, we celebrate how God chose to be born of the Virgin Mary. In order for Him to assume our humanity, the Blessed Virgin Mary truly had to give birth to God. Since Mary is Jesus’ mother, it must be concluded that she is also the Mother of God: If Mary is the mother of Jesus, and if Jesus is God, then Mary is the Mother of God. There is no way out of this logical syllogism.

Of course, we are not saying that Mary brought God into being. If this was the case, then together with the Protestants we have much cause for concern, because it would be raising a mere creature to a level above her Creator. This is not what the Church teaches. Although Mary is the Mother of God, she is not his mother in the sense that she is older than God or the source of her Son’s divinity, for she is neither. Rather, we say that she is the Mother of God in the sense that she carried in her womb a divine person—Jesus Christ, God "in the flesh" - (and in the sense that she contributed the genetic matter to the human form God took in Jesus Christ. 

Saint Anselm presents this argument in the following fashion – “To Mary God gave his only-begotten Son, whom he loved as himself. Through Mary God made himself a Son, not different but the same, by nature Son of God and Son of Mary. The whole universe was created by God, and God was born of Mary. God created all things, and Mary gave birth to God. The God who made all things gave himself form through Mary, and thus he made his own creation. He who could create all things from nothing would not remake his ruined creation without Mary. God, then, is the Father of the created world and Mary the mother of the re-created world. God is the Father by whom all things were given life, and Mary the mother through whom all things were given new life. For God begot the Son, through whom all things were made, and Mary gave birth to him as the Saviour of the world. Without God’s Son, nothing could exist; without Mary’s Son, nothing could be redeemed.”

There has been but one true revolution in the history of the world and that is precisely the Incarnation in the flesh of the eternal Logos in the person of the God-man Jesus Christ, whereby the power of sin, corruption, death and the authority of Satan are shattered and the chasm between the uncreated God and His creation is bridged. If the Incarnation is a foundational mystery of the faith then the person of Mary the Theotokos from whom Christ received His flesh and was born also stands at the centre of the faith. A faith in Christ which does not include the veneration of his mother is another faith, another Christianity from that held by the Church. A Christmas without the mother would be a meaningless Christmas, for the Word would not have taken flesh and become the source and summit of our salvation.

I want to see Jesus

Fifth Sunday of Lent - Year B

Some of you would have felt shocked entering church this evening (morning), especially my parish, seeing (or rather not seeing) all the statues, holy pictures and crosses hidden behind purple veils. Don't confront your parish priest if the statues in your parish are visible because veiling of the crosses and images varies from place to place. The custom in many places is to veil from before first vespers or the vigil Mass of the Fifth Sunday of Lent while others limit this veiling from after the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday. In some places, images and statues are actually removed from the church and not simply veiled, especially after Holy Thursday. 

It all seems unnerving to a Catholic who is quite used to having his senses scintillated by the elaborate sacramental signs and symbols found in our churches. I guess, if you had a chance, you would even have walked up to your parish priest and demanded this – “I want to see Jesus.”

“We want to see Jesus” was also the request made by the Greeks to Philip who then conveyed it to Andrew in today’s gospel. Their request, however, (Thank God) was more benign. Who are these Greeks? Most likely the accolade here does not refer to their race or nationality. They were in fact Jews. But what set them apart from the Jews of Palestine at the time of Jesus was the lingua franca they used. Unlike the Palestinian Jews who spoke Aramaic and Hebrew, these Hellenistic Jews used the common Greek tongue.

Jesus on hearing their request strangely launches into a monologue speech on a topic which seems entirely unconnected to the request of the Greeks who had simply wanted an audience. Well, at least on appearances. On the contrary, the words of Jesus were merely clarifying what he hoped the Greeks will see. The Greek speaking Jews who had come to Jerusalem on the occasion of the Passover wanted to have their curiosity sated. They must have heard of the fame of Jesus –news of his prowess at preaching, teaching, performing miracles would have travelled far and wide. But Jesus wanted them to ‘see’ beyond this shallow and superficial stereotyping. Jesus was more than just a charismatic teacher, healer or miracle worker. Jesus wanted them to see the true nature of his mission and its significance. In order to see Jesus, it was necessary for them to see the specter of the cross.

Jesus speaks of his Hour of Glory. This is the hour or the time that had been prophesied since the period of the Old Testament. In the first reading, the prophet Jeremiah speaks of the days that will come where God will establish a new covenant with his people. It would be a very different covenant from the covenants of the past. The covenants made with Noah, Abraham and Moses, which formed the basis of the Jewish way of life and belief, would pale in comparison with this new commandment. This covenant will not be written or sealed in a rainbow, the stars and stone tablets. These covenants were broken just like how the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments were shattered by Moses when he saw his people’s apostasy. This new covenant, however, will be written upon the hearts of the people and that no one can thereafter plead ignorance. In other words, the covenant will be communicated by God directly to his people through the voice of their conscience. But this law is not a new law. It is just that now the Holy Spirit will help us interiorise God’s ancient eternal law.

How will this take place? Where did the Spirit come from? The author of the letter to the Hebrews in the second reading provides the answer and we begin to see why Jesus speaks of this hour as the hour of glory. The gift of the Holy Spirit will ultimately be connected to the gift of life offered by the Son on the cross.

Coming back to Jesus’ speech in response to the Greeks’ request to see him, we now see that Jesus wanted to stress the gravity and the significance of the hour, the hour where he will have to lay down his life for the salvation of many, the hour where he will be raised up on the cross in public humiliation, but also the hour where he will be glorified by the Father for his faithfulness to the Father’s plan of salvation. On the eve of his passion and death, Jesus now went straight to the crux of the matter. He didn’t teach people any longer about how to live. He began to teach about death, especially his death. He told a parable of a seed to explain death and resurrection.

Lent is a season for learning about the meaning of Jesus’ death and how we shall die as Christians. Being Jesus’ disciples means not only to live according to his teaching but also to die according to his teaching. If we want Jesus to be our Saviour only for our life and deny his teaching about death we cannot participate in his resurrection. Jesus’ teaching about life is difficult. But his teaching about death is more difficult. This Lent I hope we struggle with his teaching about death because we wish to see Jesus. We can see Jesus through his death and through his teaching of death.

Some people understand Jesus’ death as the sacrifice of his life. He sacrificed his life to pay the price to save us from our guilt, sin, and death. But what puzzles many people is this – if the Father is truly loving, how could he sacrifice his only Son? The answer to this question lies in the way the gospel of John explains his death. According to John, Jesus chose to die very willingly to glorify God rather than passively sacrificing his life. Jesus’ death is not passive sacrifice by his Father but his own willing choice to love people even unto his own death. In today’s gospel reading we hear Jesus’ own honest and desperate struggle in facing his death. Nevertheless, Jesus knew that God so loved this world, he was willing to obey God’s will to love God’s world and to die. Through his willing obedience he glorified God’s name.

To see the truth of Jesus is to see who God is but it’s also to be able to discover the truth of the human being as originally designed by God. To see or to go seeking the real image or vision of Jesus is the central task of each and every life and the journey like His journey begins slowly and lowly. To see the truth of Jesus and His being is to look not as something of a curiosity, but a long journey to His heart. He responds to the seeking not to the curious. To see the truth of Jesus is to encounter the beauty of his love which is demonstrated by his sacrifice on the cross. To see the truth of Jesus is to see the paradox of the cross – to attain eternal life, we must be prepared to die.

Often times, I have people who come up to me making the same request. They too want to see Jesus. They want to see a Jesus that will soothe their pain and take away their misery. They want to see a Jesus that is tangibly present in miracles. They want to see a Jesus who will provide a solution to their problems. They want to see a Jesus who will restore their physical health. If this is the kind of Jesus they are looking for, they will be sorely disappointed. But in a week’s time we will all get to see the real Jesus in the liturgy of Holy Week – Here is a man who could be king but chose to go the way of a slave. Here is a man who could have stirred up a following to overthrow the Roman occupying forces but decided to submit to human authority. Here is a man who could be arrayed in the finery of an emperor but chose to be stripped of all human dignity and die naked on the cross. Here is a man who willingly chose death in order that we may have life. Here is the man, Jesus, the Son of God. Here is the man we want to, we hope to, we desire to see, to live by his teachings and to die by them!

St. Joseph- the custos, the protector

Solemnity of St. Joseph, spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of St. Joseph, spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is one of the two Solemnities that fall during Lent season. Solemnity is the highest ranking feast in the Liturgical calendar of the church, which means, it should be treated as another Sunday. Today, the purple vestment as a sign of penance give way to the white vestment that symbolised joy and purity of soul. The Gloria has been silent during this season of Lent is sung during mass.

Saint Joseph, foster-father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, is an example of a life so hidden and yet so pleasing to God.  Scriptures did not record for us a word he uttered.  But what the Gospels show is that Joseph was a doer of God’s Will.  He was always on the go, always on the move to do God’s bidding- waking up from the dream to journey to Bethlehem for the census, fleeing to Egypt with Mary and the Infant Jesus to escape Herod and his murderous band, journeying back to Nazareth at God’s command after Herod had died. 

Too often we forget that an angel also appeared to St. Joseph, to prepare him for the significant role He would play in God's saving plan for the whole human race. He was invited to exercise his human freedom, to give his assent to the Lord's invitation - and he did. The mission which God entrusts to St. Joseph to be the custos, the protector. The protector of whom? Of Mary and Jesus. Today, this protection is also then extended to the Church. St. Pope John Paul II once said :"just as Saint Joseph took loving care of Mary and gladly dedicated himself to Jesus Christ’s upbringing, he likewise watches over and protects Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church, of which the Virgin Mary is the exemplar and model” 

St. Thomas Aquinas has this to said about St. Joseph, "some Saints are privileged to extend to us their patronage with particular efficacy in certain needs, but not in others; but our holy patron St. Joseph has the power to assist us in all cases, in every necessity, in every undertaking." Our recent Pope, Pope Francis also added the name of St. Joseph in the Eucharistic prayer. "...that with the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with blessed Joseph, her Spouse..."

Today, the Church encourages us to be devoted to St. Joseph because he was a model in the heroic practice of all the virtues. The example of virtuous living that he gave in the exact fulfillment of the duties of his state of life is worthy of our reflection. He was prudent in caring for his wife and the child; he showed great leadership in protecting them and assisting them. He was religious in every sense, with that delicacy and sincerity of conscience that is proper to the saints of God. Let us ask St. Joseph to intercede for us to accept our unique and special vocation that God has planned for us. St. Joseph, Foster-Father of Our Lord, pray for us! 

God is love

Fourth Sunday of Lent - Laetare Sunday (Year B)

Today is Laetare Sunday. Laetare is a Latin word which means “rejoice” or “rejoicing.” Other nuances of the word include joyfulness, gladness, cheerfulness, and happiness.  This elated or jubilant mood is a striking one-day departure from the somber, sorrowful, penitential tone of the other days of Lent. This is one of the two occasions that we get to see the priest in their pink-rose vestment because it symbolises joy and happiness. 

There are multiple reasons why the Fourth Sunday of Lent is cause for joy, the most important of which is the proximity of Easter. On Ash Wednesday, Easter was a long way off, six and a half weeks, but on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Easter is only three weeks away, and as the greatest of all Christian feast draws ever nearer, joy increases. 

The Scriptures texts for the Fourth Sunday of Lent are a series of joyful messages.  In today's Gospel reading, I guess this is one of the most familiar verses among Christian- John 3:16" God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.” Wow... Isn't that a joyful message to all of us? God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 

However, this oft repeated text has certainly lost much of its impact on its readers. There is no doubt that this is a definitive statement about the extent of God’s love. But it also speaks to us of the true value and worth of our lives which we often discount. 

Perhaps, the most frequent doubt people have about God, is not with regards to his existence but about the measure of his love. When we examine our behaviour and actions, we can recognize our lack of belief in God’s love for us. Whenever we sin, we forget this truth about ourselves. The root of sin is this: we sin when we believe that God’s love for us is not enough. In other words, when we sin we doubt God’s love for us. When we sin we call God a liar. When we sin, we claim that there is something more important than what God can give to us. We give in to the temptation that we must supplement the inadequate love of God with other things – material possessions, popularity or power.

Sin finds a parallel in our psycho-emotional state. Many people generally do not feel good about themselves. They harbour thoughts that they are not beautiful enough, not smart enough, not loving enough. They often suffer from a poor self-image. Because of this low estimation of themselves, they often are also critical of others and easily find fault with them. There is some sick cycle being played out – they criticize and belittle others with the hope that they will feel bigger and more superior.

We get angry with others for hurtful words and actions and find it hard to forgive them because of the same reason. Other’s comments and criticism shake our already poor image of ourselves. People find it hard to forgive because they find it hard to forgive themselves. If we are harsh in judging ourselves we will also be harsh in judging others.

Many people also try to please others – their parents, their spouses, their children – by doing whatever is asked of them, even when it makes them miserable and unhappy. Many of us also try to please God. Following the commandments and penances are performed without much internal freedom. If they are done, it is to appease a capricious God who seeks to heap heavy taxes on his people. St. Paul reminds us in the second reading that “it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit.”

This is it: We are saved by God because he loves us. We are saved not because we deserve it. We don’t deserve it because we are sinners. We are saved not because we have earned it. Love and salvation can never be earned. This is the extent of the love of God – that he saved us despite our sins and not because we were good. God came not to condemn us but to save us. Today’s gospel reassures us of this: “For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved.” This is our destiny. This is our dignity. This is the real story of the greatest love the world has ever known – a love paid with the price of one’s life – the life of God. How then should we respond to this insight? Our thoughts go back to the First Sunday of Lent, to the message of Christ which began all this – the good news of salvation. In this message, Jesus summarises it simply in two words - “Repent” and “Believe”. Repent from your sins and believe in the good news of God’s salvation.

"...they shall be comforted..."

Dear Friends, tomorrow marks the first anniversary of the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. Based on most of the news report,  it seems hardly possible to detect any silver lining in this otherwise sad and tragic incident. We find ourselves once more at the foot of the Cross in all our brokenness and frailty.

The loss of so many innocent human lives, one tragedy trailing another, seem so incomprehensible, so horrific that our human minds and hearts, our frail human emotions fail to come to terms with the immensity of our pain. It is necessary for us, as a community, to come together in human solidarity and in Christian love and support so that, through our common prayer and reflection, we may, in some way, find answers to questions which burden us, to doubts which weaken us and to fears which threaten us. In the darkness of tragedy, in the seeming finality of death, in the continuing apprehension of the unknown of the future, we Christians stand together in the light of Christ, our Saviour. The Assumption of Mary and presence in heaven with the saints provides us with a powerful testimony that our hope in the resurrection is not in vain. Death is not the end, but merely a transition to something far greater.

On this day of Mourning, It is particularly important to remember the second beatitude: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matt. 5:4). Reading this, we might immediately think it refers to God comforting us when we mourn a loved one’s death. Of course, as believers we do experience God’s consolation in times of loss, but this is just one way the promise of the second beatitude is fulfilled.

According, Pope Benedict XVI, “there are two kinds of mourning. The first is the kind that has lost hope, that has become mistrustful of love and of truth, and that therefore eats away and destroys man from within. But there is also the mourning occasioned by the shattering encounter with truth, which leads man to undergo conversion and to resist evil. This mourning heals, because it teaches man to hope and to love again.” This is the mourning we Christians are undertaking today, the mourning that brings healing and change, not one that traps us in hopeless grieving and which leads to despair.

As our prayers and thoughts reach out today to the many who are grieving the loss of their dear ones, let our mourning be turned into a source of comfort, consolation and healing for them. For the souls of those who have died, let our prayers be a sign of our solidarity with them within the communion of the saints. As we pray for all those who have lost their lives and all those whose lives today are filled with anguish because of their loss, let us also pray with urgency and with faith, that the hard hearts of those responsible for this terrible event might somehow be touched by the wave of mourning and sorrow which has been unleashed, a mourning that heals, brings conversion and teaches man to hope and to love again.

Today, with Mary, we are asked to gaze on Jesus, the Son of God who suffered and died for us on the cross. Though Jesus was a man of sorrows, He was able to endure suffering and pain because He knew that “out of the anguish of his soul” He would “see and be satisfied” (Isa. 53:11). We will never have to go through what Christ did, but we can look to God’s promise of comfort as a similar guarantee that we will one day see our mourning is not in vain, but as the Psalmist assures us, that our mourning will be turned into joy. Requiescat in Pace.

Righteous Anger

Third Sunday of Lent - Year B

"How would you describe your relationship with God?" This was one of the question asked during the RCIA retreat in my parish. The most common answers from the candidates are Father, companion, guidance etc. 

In today's Gospel,  we encounter a very different Jesus. We would often like to think of him as calm and collected, wise, gentle and loving. But in today’s gospel, Jesus unleashes his anger on the moneylenders and animal vendors in the Temple. His anger is not just confined to verbal altercation but is expressed in a physical and even violent manner, as he overturns the tables, vandalises the tools of trade and collections of these businessmen, and even physically whips them with a makeshift flogger. To describe this behaviour as disturbing is an understatement. Many people, including many of us, would have deemed this petulant and childish and outright scandalous. What do we make of this? 

But before we look into the text and try to discern the purpose of Jesus’ actions, we need to address an issue that may also distracts enquiring minds. The gospel of John presents this episode of the cleansing of the temple at the beginning whereas the same story is found at the end of the other three gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. We must remember that the gospels were not mere biographies of Jesus written in a chronological manner. Each of the gospels is a theological document utilising stories from the life of Jesus. The Synoptic gospel writers place the story near the end because it fits their purpose of explaining why Jesus was tried and arrested. On the other hand, the Gospel of John places the story of the cleansing of the Temple at the beginning, because it also fits into the thematic schema of the first few chapters (e.g. Wedding of Cana) that Jesus has come to make all things new. Here lies the clue to unraveling the mystery of Jesus’ actions.

We now come back to the issue of interpreting the action and more specifically the anger of Jesus. Were the presence of the moneylenders and animal vendors justified? Here, it must be noted that their presence in the Temple grounds were neither a desecration nor were they deemed a distraction. Their business was in fact essential to Temple worship. Profane currency, which usually carried the image of the Roman emperor, was prohibited as payment of Temple taxes, because it violated the first and second commandment, which we heard in the first reading. The animal vendors sold animals used for sacrifice by the pilgrims. Their trade, with licenses issued by the Temple authority, guaranteed quality as pilgrims were prohibited to offer an animal victim that was blemished in any way. Therefore, both the moneylenders and the animal vendors served as intermediaries and their presence marked that invisible boundary between the sacred world of those who were worthy and the rest of the world that was considered impure.

In introducing the theme of ‘newness,’ Jesus’ anger can be understood at two levels.

At the first level, Jesus was targeting the culture of transforming religion into a marketable commodity. The point that is being made here is not just the commercialisation of the Temple building. Jesus was not targeting the traders in the Temple compound because he felt that these sacred grounds should not be desecrated by their wheeling and dealing. All those who sell religious articles within the Church premises or who attempt to raise funds can rest assured that they do not risk the wrath of a Jesus going amok once again. What was commercialised was religion itself. Although the money lenders and animal vendors provided access to Temple worship, it came with a price. Their presence and activities fostered the erroneous belief that faith and grace could be sold and bought.

The second level which Jesus attacked was the false dichotomy that stood between the outside world and the interior of the Temple. This dualism was reinforced by the presence of these tradesmen who acted as intermediaries between these two realms, thus fulfilling somewhat the function of the priestly caste. In fact, Jesus’ attack against them was in a way a more subtle attack on the leadership of the priesthood. The function of a priest was to mediate the relationship between the people and God. But, Jesus’ indictment against them was that they had not only failed to act as representatives of God and of men in facilitating this communion but indeed had become obstacles. In the synoptic gospels, Jesus stressed that the Temple was to be a place of worship ‘for all nations.’ But the priestly caste, including their business collaborators had made it an exclusive enterprise, a limited commodity that could only be dispense if one paid the right price.

But both these points are merely secondary to what Jesus had intended to teach through his actions. The temple for the Jews was where God was found on earth. God lived in heaven, but his presence could be found in Jerusalem. Because God’s presence was there, this is where the Jews found forgiveness and cleansing for their sins. Over the centuries, the temple changed. It had been sacked and looted and rebuilt only for it to happen again. The half breed Jewish King Herod built the temple Jesus walked into, but Herod because of his ancestry and his being Caesar’s puppet made this temple suspect, to say the least. In the past, the Temple was holy because it housed the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of God’s indwelling among his people. But now its holiest sanctuaries stood empty. The Ark of the Covenant was long lost. The Temple had become an empty husk bereft of meaning. Different groups of Jews were waiting for the messiah to come and restore the temple into the splendour it had when Solomon built it. They longed for this time when true worship could take place there, without any taint of impurity.

The most important point, therefore, expressed by the words and actions of Jesus was that he was supplanting the physical Temple building with the Temple of his Body. From now on, religion could no longer be paid for a price by money either minted with the face of Caesar or with the menorah, the seven branch candlestand that was imprinted on the Temple coins. The faith that was introduced by Christ would be paid with a far greater price, the price of His own life on the Cross. Likewise, there was no need for any animal sacrifices. The most perfect sacrifice has been offered by Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In this new economy of salvation, in order for worshippers to worship God in Spirit and Truth, there was no need for the mediation of moneylenders and animal vendors. Christ Himself would be the Sole and Perfect Mediator.

Therefore, the themes contained in today’s gospel reading present us with several thought provoking and soul searching questions: Should we really get angry whenever we do not get our way or should our anger (a righteous kind of anger) be directed at sin or whatever keeps God from his rightful place of authority in our lives? Should we get annoyed when our space appears invaded or should we turn our anger to the many obstacles and walls which often creates false disparity between the rich and the poor, and insurmountable barriers between peoples of different cultures? Should we just be looking at the sacrosanct inviolability of our church buildings or should we be focusing on the new Temple, the resurrected Christ who is present in his Body, the Church, where there is no division between Jew or Gentile, slave or free, rich or poor? As we continue our Lenten preparations to celebrate the newness of our lives through baptism which we will all commemorate and renew at Easter, let us cast aside all the impediments and obstacles that continue to separate us from the Love of God, the Love made flesh in his Son, Jesus Christ who has come to make all things new.