Pastor’s Desk – 3rd Sunday of Lent

God’s building

Why is Jesus angry? – they have missed the point and the religious leaders are allowing this to happen! Religion has come down to ritual, and the centre is missing. Jesus was not much at home in the temple.  He went there sometimes, and always caused trouble. The finding in the temple, the words – my body is the temple.  Jesus is more at home at the table – the loaves at the lake, the fish on the beach, the last supper in a home. This is where he is most himself.

The falsity of the occasion was the using of the temple to be entrapped by riches. The poor were being overcharged to pay for the materials for sacrifices. This caused the anger of Jesus.

The temple has disappeared. We are God’s building. If we do not make God’s presence real in our area, then maybe we should knock down the church!  Only if God is alive in us all the time, will he be alive in the building.  If God is not alive all week in us, God will not be alive on Sunday.  If he is not alive in our hearts – well, maybe that’s sometimes why religion can be so boring – it’s religion only from the neck up.

The forty six years are over, and the three days of the rebuilding have been going on for years, in the hearts of all who are faithful to God’s love. The building continues still and we are the living stones.

Think of what is most central to your life.

Is that a concern of God too?

Lord, keep me close to all you love and value in life.

Donal Neary SJ