Thirty-second Sunday of Ordinary
Time (C)
Feast of Dedication of the
Lateran Basilica [Jn 2:13-22]
09.11.2025
Cleansing
of the Temple of Jerusalem
Readings: (1) Ez 47:1-2.8-9.12 (2) 1 Cor
3:9-11.16-17
- Theme in brief:
Rebuilding
the temple of our hearts
- Focus Statement:
We need to rebuild the ‘temple’ of
our hearts and minds by cleansing them of all profanities, evil, unjust and
exploitative attitudes so that we can worship God in spirit and truth.
- Explanation of
the text
The OT prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Amos preached that God was not
pleased only with exterior cult or animal sacrifices if Israelites neglected
obedience to him and justice to their people. The dramatic cleansing of the Jewish
temple at
Today’s gospel depicts Jesus showing a “righteous anger” at the desecration
of God’s temple by Jewish traders and money-changers (2:14). The same Spirit
that drove Jesus into the desert drove him into the temple and gave him the courage
to drive out profaners and profiteers. He wanted to purify religion by purging
it of unjust, profane and dishonest practices. He observed a twofold injustice
and exploitation
of Jewish pilgrims that was going on in the outermost portion of the
temple called the Court of the Gentiles, at the time of Passover feast: (1) The
traders took advantage
of the pilgrims’ inconvenience to bring their own sacrificial animals from
distant places for an offering. So they kept cattle, sheep and doves for sale
(2:11,15) in the outer court meant for Gentiles to pray, so that the pilgrims
could buy them. They charged a higher price by claiming them to be pure and unblemished
for sacrificial purpose as per Jewish law. (2) The money-changers offered to exchange
their foreign currency with local coins at a good discount, since it was not
permitted to pay the temple tax with foreign coins.
Jesus was enraged at this type of fleecing of pilgrims done in the name of religion
that was carried out with the active collusion of religious authorities. Making a whip
of cords, he drove out the traders and the money-changers who had their vested interests
(2:15). [John does not mention clearly
whether Jesus really lashed them with his whip.] However, he was harsher at
the dove-sellers and rebuked them strongly for making his Father’s house a
marketplace (2:16), most probably because the doves were bought by poor
people for offering sacrifices. He saw how religion was mixed up with money,
business and power, and how people with vested
interests had found a way to use a place of worship for their own ends. He could no longer remain a passive
spectator to this type of injustice done in the name of religion and might
have decided to act, knowing well the consequences he would have to face. Thus
he challenged the abuse of the place of worship for business
purposes.
Jesus’ zeal for God’s house or his intense devotion to God led him to
be prepared to face any suffering or hardship that would come as a consequence.
John says that later
on Jesus’ disciples “remembered” that, by this sort of protest, he was
fulfilling what was written in the Scripture (Ps 69:9) that zeal for
God’s house would burn within him like a fire which would totally consume
him (2:17). “Remembering”
is a technical term to refer to the process by which the community gradually
came to realize that Jesus was the fulfilment of OT promises only after his
resurrection (2:22).
The Jewish authorities wanted him to prove that he
had divine authority to act the way he did by providing them a sign
from God (2:18). Jesus told them that his resurrection would be the greatest
sign: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up"
(2:19). True to the principle of misunderstanding commonly followed in John’s
gospel, the Jewish authorities did not understand that he referred to the temple
of his own body.
They thought he was threatening to destroy the greatest symbol of their
religious and national pride, the magnificent
- Application to
life
Cleansing of the temple of Jerusalem by
Jesus was a sign
that indicated his desire to do an inner cleansing of our hearts and minds, if
ever we are willing to submit ourselves to his cleansing power. Today’s gospel text calls us to undergo a process of inner purification of the
temple of our bodies and hearts and cleanse our society from all defilement with more vigour and ardour.
St. Paul is fully in line with Jesus’ teaching in today’s gospel when he tells Christians that their bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells in
them (1 Cor 3:16-17; 6:19). Since their bodies are living temples of the Holy
Spirit, he calls them to glorify or honour God with their bodies (1 Cor
6:20). This text invites us to examine whether we have profaned these holy
temples by making them marketplaces or business centres by our sins/
unfaithfulness to God/ unjust and ungodly ways. What
defiles our bodies, minds and hearts? Of course, our sins, polluted minds, evil intentions,
uncontrolled or unbridled passions and desires. Now is the time to acknowledge
that, instead of honouring God with our bodies/ minds/ hearts, we have dishonoured
and defiled
them with all this garbage. Therefore, the Lord challenges us, just as he did to the
Jewish authorities, to destroy the defiled temple of
our sinful and old self (ego) in order to rebuild it
with the glory of Christ.
Though our bodies or hearts become the dwelling place of the Spirit by
our baptism, we are tempted to turn them into marketplaces or trade centres by following a hedonistic philosophy of life: “eat, drink and be merry, for
tomorrow we die”; by doing ‘body-worship’; by becoming slaves to
various types of pornographic
literature
especially through the mass media; by abusing our or others’ bodies by various
acts of immorality; by misusing religious
and spiritual places/ powers/ positions/ practices for profiteering; by misusing religion for political and business purposes and exploitation, especially of the
weaker sections of our society. It is high time for us to repent for the times we turned our temples
into marketplaces, and if we have mixed up religion with power, money and politics.
Is it true that we sing and pray with the fullest volume in the external
temple (church or place of worship) and do not bother to listen to the voice of the
Spirit going on in the internal temple of our hearts? This voice prompts us to
purge
our temple of greed, jealousy, resentment, bitterness, hatred, dishonest/
corrupt/ exploitative desires stored up there. If we fail to purge, these
things may become the traders and money-changers sitting inside the temple of
our hearts and interfering
in the true worship of God. Then our prayer and worship will turn out to be
merely an exterior religiosity or piety. Jesus challenges us to destroy
this exterior temple and practice interior worship or worship of the heart. If
sinful habits are deeply rooted in our hearts, perhaps we need a fierce Jesus
who displays ‘righteous anger’ and cracks the whip to cleanse our inner temple.
Today’s gospel invites us to make a choice: either to drive out the traders and
the money changers from our hearts, or else to drive out Christ who becomes a
stumbling block for our worship of false gods. The question is whether we want
to be cleansed or whether we desire holiness with all sincerity and
seriousness.
This text points to Christ’s
resurrection after the destruction of the temple of his own body, i.e. his
sacrificial death: (1) Now the worship of God is not limited to temple (or church) alone, because
we believe that the whole world is filled with the Risen Lord’s presence. He
can be worshipped anywhere in spirit and truth. Now in workplaces and
fields, on streets and at home we can search for him and find him in faith in
the inner temple of our hearts.
(2) Now the whole world has become God’s
temple, because Jesus has become the Lord of the universe by his resurrection.
If so, we have a responsibility to cleanse the world or human society whenever
it is defiled due to injustice, corruption and exploitation. Hence, we should keep in mind
that any worship which compromises or closes its eyes on any evil in society,
any of the crimes
against humanity, any unjust and oppressive structures, and
negates our responsibility
to build up a just society, is not a true worship at all. Like Jesus we too are
called to raise a prophetic protest whenever God’s temple is profaned or defiled with
injustice, and take great pains to cleanse it.
Not only each one of us is a temple of God, but we as a community
are also a temple, because Paul says, “You [together] are that temple” (1 Cor
3:17), and "You [together] are the body of Christ." (1 Cor 12:27). The
Our zeal
for the Father’s house is a zeal for justice, truth and honesty. The zeal of
Jesus, his passion or inner feeling for the Father’s house consumed
him (2:17) to such an extent that he could not tolerate injustice and profanation
of the temple. What about us? Do we tolerate such evil very easily? Like the
Jewish authorities, we too want to see miraculous signs and wonders from God
rather than living the spirit of religion which implies doing good
and working for justice. We must examine and see
whether, like Jesus whose love for his Father’s house and for our salvation
consumed him totally to the point of laying down his life on the cross, we too
are burning with the same zeal for his cause and values; whether we resent at
evil, unjust and corrupt ways of the world, or tolerate them/ compromise with
them and even collude with them like Jewish religious authorities. Today’s
feast invites us to rekindle our zeal for God’s mission and re-build the temple of our bodies
(life), world (society) and the Church.
- Response to God's Word
What
defiles our minds and hearts: Personal sins? Mass media? Brainwashing by bad
companions? Crooked and violent mind-set? Resentment and hatred? Greed for
wealth and power? Do we feel the cost of making sacrifices in order to live a
holy, honest and selfless life? Are we burning with the same zeal for God’s
cause and values? Do we resent at evil, unjust, exploitative and corrupt ways
of the world at
least by showing our displeasure in our own little ways,
or keep quiet or even collude with them? Instead of allowing zeal for God’s house to
consume most of our available time, do we allow it to be consumed by gossip,
loitering, too many TV serials, excessive or obsessive surfing of the internet
and attending parties after parties? If our bodies are temples of God, how do
we treat them, and how do we treat the bodies of children, boys/girls,
men/women, enemies/opponents?
- A prayer
Father, you have made your Son Jesus the new temple. Grant that we may
worship you in spirit and in truth in the temple of our hearts, of our
day-to-day world and of our faith-community. Fill us with the courage of your
Spirit so that we may be able to protest in our own little ways against the
forces that defile the temple of our world and society. Amen.
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