The new Temple

Jesus was not really that mad; but He was consumed with zeal for his Father’s house. Picture the gentle Jesus with a whip in His hand chasing the sellers who had turned the holy Temple into a marketplace. We note, not with a little amusement, that the animals for sale – oxen, sheep, doves, etc. were for sacrifice. The moneychangers were seated right there. The same scene could happen in Quiapo or Baclaran or any church where people take business advantage of the comings and goings of worshippers. Jesus had to take a whip, which was more a symbol of authority rather than a physical goad. One day the sacrificial institutions of Judaism, would be no more, just as the Temple of Solomon and that of Herod which used to shine golden under the Jerusalem sun are now no more. What is left of the Temple now? Nothing but the last relic called the "wailing wall" after Titus destroyed it in 70 A.D. To this day Jews go back there to lament the dispersion of their people and weep over the loss of the holy Temple.

"By whose authority do you do this? Give us a sign." The Jews who questioned Him did not have the Spirit to recognize that the sign was right in front of them. "This will be my sign: Destroy the Temple and in three days I will build it up again." But the profound meaning of the whole incident would become clear only after the death of Christ and His glorious Resurrection three days after. This moving truth is the Messianic implication of today’s Gospel. And this truth Jesus entrusts to the Church He founded. Its members, the people of God, stand on the indestructible keystone which is no other than Christ Himself. It is the new Temple, universal, one, holy and apostolic forever. Now we know that the full significance of Jesus’ words and deeds can be understood only in the light of His Passion, Death and Resurrection. The supreme mystery of Christ changes the institution of sacrifice where we are co-offerers with Him in the Eucharist. We are temples of God and Christ would have us cleansed in the regenerating waters of baptism and the sacrament of reconciliation whereby we become holy and pleasing to the Lord.

The paradox of the Cross has become a contradiction to those who persist in sin, refusing to be redeemed. To them the Cross is foolishness, but it is the power of God to those who are saved by the Cross. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the learning of the learned I will set aside… Christ is the wisdom of God and the power of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength" (I Cor. 1:22-25).

We become empty just as our churches become empty without Christ’s presence. It is Christ who makes our churches Temples; it is He who can make us temples by His presence. Only those who take up the Cross of Christ to follow Him can understand this. Those who would people His Church would have to live all over again His Passion, Death and Resurrection. This is the mystery of the new Temple where we can worship the Father in love and in truth so that in Christ by the power of the Spirit we can live forever.

Third Sunday of Lent, John 2: 13-25