Reflection on the Gospel of 3rd Sunday of Lent Yr B by Rev Fr Julian O Ekeh

 

TAKE THESE THINGS AWAY

{Image from: Jesus Cleanses the Temple (findshepherd.com)}

(John 2:13-25)

We are in the third week of Lent. Our attention is drawn to how we are purging ourselves with the spiritual activities and the Divine worship. Jesus visits the temple. He wants to know how we are doing in His abode. He comes to take a look at our mode of worship. He wants to moderate our retreat. He comes to supervise our spiritual examination and evaluation. He comes to encourage our efforts and reprimand us for our carelessness. Thus, He directs us on what to keep and what to remove. He admonishes us on what to destroy and what not to destroy. He tells us to focus on the indestructible and try not to fall into the temptation of waging a war against the Holy.

If Jesus is indeed our supervisor, he tells us what we must remove, what we must not take with us as we proceed, what we should not allow to implicate us in this journey. He wants us to search ourselves well. He wants us to stop and search ourselves. He doesn't want what we put in nor what any other person put in us to hinder our spiritual progress.

Just as it is done before boarding a flight, Jesus wants us to remove the 'unnecessaries' and the 'not needfuls'.

WHAT YOU MUST TAKE AWAY

Whatever that is unacceptable in the sight of God must be far removed from us. Jesus came into the temple and found people doing unholy exchange in the temple and He made a whip out from chord and drove them away. This act is very symbolic. He wants us to put a stop to every form of ungodly exchange.

FALSE WORSHIP

 Have you allowed the true worship of God to be watered down? Have you replaced the true religion given to us by God with a false one that is not in spirit and truth? Take away deceptive and lip service method of worship. Come with sincerity of purpose to worship the Lord and not for ulterior motives. Endeavour to purify yourself through the word of God, the commandments of God and the Sacraments of the Church as well as the Liturgical rites of this Sacred Period. Take away pride and be humble. Feel sorry for your failings. Present yourself to be washed that the blood shed by Christ for you may not be in vain. It purifies.

We are to take away all forms of diabolism, every kind of romance with evil spirits and all types of union with people who defile us. Let us come to God with deep respect and reverence and allow him to touch us with holiness.

MATERIALISM

Jesus wants us to detach ourselves from material things. The money changers saw the temple as a place for making money. Religion for them became a business. All that mattered was their bank account and how much coins they picked in a day. The worship of money and moneybags became the order of the day.

Take away your act of allowing business to be an excuse for the lapses evidenced in your spiritual life. Are you the type who say: 'God will understand' and you do not make out time to worship Him? Are you the type that stay at shop during Masses, stations of the Cross and prefer to do it online when you can actually attend and come back?

Money is not everything. Wealth is not all that matters. Let's put God and the things of God first. Jesus wants us to take away the inordinate quest for money in order to be pure before God. He sees all people do for the sake of money and acquisitions. Jesus condemns the blood baths, the ritualism, the fraudulent activities in the high and low places, the sex for marks, for employment, for help, etc.

Jesus frowns at the unholy ways we treat our bodies which is the temple of the Holy spirit.

UNHOLY BODIES

 Jesus wants us to take away unholy bodies from God's sight. He wants us to stop deceiving ourselves thinking that the offering we make nor the ‘packagings’ will suffice for the sanctity He desires from us in body and in the soul. He wants us therefore to remove fornication, adultery, homosexuality, and indeed all forms of sexual immorality from our bodies.  Jesus discourages destruction of life, killing of all kinds.

We should therefore destroy everything that comes to destroy the temple of the Lord that is our bodies and endeavour not to destroy others ourselves. God wishes to raise these bodies on the last day. It cannot be raised if we allow it to be pulled down in sin. It can't be raised if we refused to raise it in holiness. It cannot be raised if we give it all that it wants. Let us nourish our body and soul being the temple of the Holy Spirit with worthy feeds. Let us decorate and dignify the temple of God by our dignified worship and life of sweet-smelling fragrance that honours God. Let us remove those things that do not honour God.

Tell yourself the truth. You know the various ways you have used to defile God in the Eucharist and indeed the ways you have dishonoured God in your flesh.

LET US PRAY

Thank You Lord for coming in to discover that the things that should be removed from our lives. Purge us, cleanse us, wash and purify us to be whiter than snow. As we worship You today in Your temple, accept us as perfect offerings and make Your home within us as tabernacles pleasing to You. Give us the grace to expel and destroy the forces that want us to exchange godliness for sinfulness through Christ our Lord. Amen

Happy Sunday (Third Week of Lent)

Rev Fr Julian O Ekeh