DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Exodus 20, 1-17; 1 Cor 1,22-25; John 2, 13-25; 3rd Sunday of Lent: Year B)
The readings of today, especially the second reading and the gospel, concentrate much on the person of Jesus Christ. This calls for a strong faith relationship on our part towards him. Jesus’ energetic expulsion of the profaners of the temple shows him to be fully human, who has emotions and feelings. One recollects how tired and thirsty he was at the well of Jacob (John 4,6-8); how he wept at the death of Lazarus (John 11, 33-35) and today, how angry he was with the profaners of the temple: ... and in the temple he found people selling cattle and sheep and pigeons, and the money changers sitting at their counters there. Making a whip out of some cord, he drove them out of the Temple, cattle and sheep as well, scattered the money changers’ coin and knocked their table over. Through his courageous action Jesus restores the sacredness of the temple as a place of prayer and union with God. For Jesus the temple and its precincts were not places, like market places, where money is made. Jesus’ gesture had even more symbolic significance and importance. By turning over the tables of the money changers in the temple, Jesus, thereby, declares the end of the worship of God that is linked to material and external places and announces the beginning of a new way of worship that will be much more spiritual and interior, and which will, of necessity, have the event of his resurrection as the centre point. It is this line of thought that Jesus communicated to the Samaritan woman: Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain not in Jerusalem...But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth... (John 4,21-23). In today’s gospel episode, by sending away the merchants from the temple and through his speech (Destroy this sanctuary and in three days I will raise it up) Jesus was indicating the inauguration of the New Era or Way of worship. The new temple or place of worship is his divine body. It is the privileged place to experience the presence of God, the place of meeting with God, because as St. Paul holds, the whole fullness of Deity (Divinity) dwells bodily in him (Col 2,9). In this same vein, it could be recalled how Jesus retorted to Phillip who wanted him to show him the Father, he said: Whoever has seen me has seen the Father (John 14, 8-9). He also told Thomas: I am the way, the truth and life: no one comes to the Father, except through me (John 14,6). In fact, one can say that Jesus is the centre of the universe, the medium of our communication with God and the very presence of God in our midst. What is my relationship with this Jesus? Does he mediate God’s presence to me at every moment of my daily chores and activities? These are ernest questions about our relationship that we will have to reckon with and put in order today and in this Lenten period as we prepare for the great feast of Easter.
Paul, as it were, took up this line of thought when in today’s second reading and in reference to Christ mentions that the Jews look for miracles while the Greeks seek for human wisdom. The Jews took Jesus as the Messiah but were disappointed when he did not turn out to be the triumphant Messiah that was expected to liberate them from the Romans who occupied their land. They also could not reconcile with the idea that the Messiah would suffer and die. The Greeks in the other hand did not accept Jesus because they could not conceive a God that was made man, suffered and died. What was the opinion of the Christians of Paul’s time and our present day Christians about Jesus? We preach Christ who was crucified, power and wisdom of God. What does this mean in practical terms? It means that we should fix our gaze on God who allowed his Son to be crucified and on Jesus our norm of life. It also means that Jesus is all and all for us. It means entering into faith relationship with God and Christ. That is following Jesus even to his passion and death.
If Jesus mediates the presence of God, and is the power and wisdom of God, what rapport has he with the Ten Commandment of the Old Testament? Jesus did not abolish them. He rather confirmed and perfected them. He did so by bringing out highlights that were the centre and core message of the Ten Commandment: Love of God and love of neighbour (Matt 22, 37-40; See also Rom 13,8-10). He showed by his teaching, that we should love even our enemies who stand in need of our care and concern. By the end of his life, he demonstrated it practically by giving up his life on the cross where he shed the last drop of his blood as a sign of maximum sacrificial love for us. It can also be said that Jesus came into the world in order to communicate to his graces and Spirit of love to us so that we would be enabled to live out the commandments of God in the spirit of interior liberty towards the full integral development of the individual Christian and the Christian Community as a whole. What is important is that we do so following the example of Christ and in union of love and faith with him. May we, in this Eucharistic assembly, pray that we may enter into a fruitful faith and love rapport with Jesus Christ, the power and wisdom of God, the perfecter of the Old Testament Commandments and the medium of God’s presence for us. Happy Sunday! +John Okoye.
(graphics by blogger)
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