Sacred Spaces

Readings: Ex 20:1-17 or 20:1-3, 7-8, 12-17; 1 Cor 1:22- 25; Jn 2:13-25 or Ex 17:3-7; Rom 5:1-2, 5-8; Jn 4:5-42 or 4:5-15, 19-26, 39, 40-42
"Stop making My Father's house a marketplace!" Jn 2:16

Most of us are not used to Jesus acting in a violent manner. His behavior in today's Gospel can be understood, however, in light of the nature of the Jewish Temple. The Temple was the focal point for Jewish worship. It was the dwelling place of God's special presence. As the earthly equivalent of God's heavenly home, the sacred character of the Temple, therefore, demanded sacred behavior.

For this reason, Jesus drove out the money changers - not because He doesn't love them or because the act of buying and selling is wrong in itself, but because this activity has no place within the sacred space of the Temple.

Jesus knows that such secular interests distract the Jews from the true purpose of the Temple, which is worship of His Heavenly Father. Jesus wants our hearts to be a sacred space for worship of God as well. Our secular interests are fine, but not if they become the god that we serve. It is Jesus' desire to drive out all that distracts our hearts from placing God first.

It is for this reason that Jesus dies on the cross. For, through His sorrowful Passion, Jesus bears the entire punishment due to sin in His own flesh. This not only destroys the major fruit of sin, which is death, it also wins for us the grace to be set free from the slavery of sin. This is why He speaks to the Pharisees about the sign of destroying the Temple and rebuilding it in three days.

The sin of humanity will serve to destroy His body, the true Temple. After three days, the Father will resurrect Him with a glorified body. This will be the new Temple where people will go to seek Divine Mercy and thus have their hearts purified from sin. The Image of The Divine Mercy shows us the glorified and risen Christ as our new Temple.

Thank You, Jesus, for taking on the punishment due to my sin. Grant me the grace to seek the purification of my heart, so the work of Your sorrowful Passion may not be in vain. Amen.
mmwj

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