Pastor’s Notes

The city of Chicago boasts these days of only two seasons: winter and under construction. The Reformation taught us that Church is “SEMPER REFORMATA – ALWAYS UNDER CONSTRUCTION.   Lent is our annual ecclesial reshaping. The Gospel can shine through us better when we get out of the way.  When we make ourselves available for the work of the assembly: service, communion, teaching, proclamation and worship in spirit and truth.

Jesus calls to task those who are buying and selling in the Jerusalem temple in this weekend’s Gospel. Their business was honest enough. It was to supply Jews with what they needed to worship God in the Fathers House. Jewish worship required that people obtain certain animals to offer. They were also to buy them with Jewish money. So, the activities of selling animals and changing money were lawful for the observance of Jewish ritual. But this collusion between commerce and religion was out of balance.  The Kingdom of God was certainly not free.  But it couldn’t be bought.  Jesus chastised the moneychangers for making his father’s house “a den of thieves.”  A marriage had happened that opened itself to heartache.  When the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman military in 70AD, many in the Jewish communion would feel their world had come to an end.

Jesus takes this opportunity to expand our understanding of how we do business with God. There are still ugly battle lines in our Catholic communion …even to this day … between those who see churches as the Houses of God and those who see religious buildings as the house of the people of God. Both are holy ground, but one is much more resilient than the other when the hard times come. And the cross comes for everyone eventually.

So Jesus runs the sellers out of the Jerusalem temple. (Not our usual image of Jesus meek and mild. I would not want to be in this man’s way.) Then he addresses the people’s understanding of where the Kingdom of God resides and how we are to honor God.  Jesus talks of the temple, the most sacred place of the Jewish faith. Then he draws a comparison between the temple and his own body, his very self.  He says that if the temple that is his body is destroyed, it will be raised up in three days.

Jesus indicated that the sacred place that was the temple in Jerusalem was to give way to the sacred person and a sacred humanity. The Body of Christ was the new temple of God in our world. It was not made of wood and stone, but people and stories.

We begin the “scrutinies” this weekend with catechumens and candidates for Easter sacraments.  The Mass with that group attending this weekend uses the Gospel of the Samaritan woman.  Her conversation with Jesus at the well makes the same point about worship; “in Spirit and Truth.” It is not about where we pray, but how.  It is about the sacred gathering where God’s Spirit abides.  The assembly of the Body of Christ is a temple not made with stones.  It is just people. But it is strong and beautiful.  We are blest to be a part of that noble assembly in a century old home still doing the Father’s business.

A gentle week,
Fr. Michael Weldon, OFM