INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this 3rd Sunday in Lent - Year B - is, “The Sacred Temple.”
Most religions have sacred places and sacred centers.
They are the places that hold us together.
They are the places of prayer and silence and wow.
MAKE LISTS
For Catholics, it could be Rome, Lourdes, Fatima, our
local church, a favorite church we went to as a kid or where they have an a adoration chapel.
For Mormons, it could be Salt Lake City.
For Moslems, it could be a hajj or pilgrimaGe to a sacred place like Mecca, Madinah, Jerusalem.
For Jews it could be Jerusalem.
For Japanese Buddhists it could be Kyoto.
If you were asked to tell of your most sacred place, what would be your answer? On the way home or
at a meal today, announce to each other your most sacred place – or places - built by people or formed by nature.
I wanted to go to 7 places: Israel (preferably the Lake
of Galilee), Chartres Cathedral near Paris, St. Peter’s in Rome, Scala, Italy
(just above the Amalfi Coast) – where the Redemptorists began in 1732, the birthplaces of my mom and dad in Galway Ireland, and
the Grand Canyon. Got to all of them in like a 5 year window.
SACRED AND SECULAR
It could be places where we went to school, places where
we went to church.
It could be places where we met and fell in love, got
engaged, got married, went on a honeymoon. It could be a cemetery – or Ocean
City – or where have you.
It could be a Hall of Fame or a Hall of Shame.
It could be places of horror or holocaust - places like Auswitz, Hiroshima, Pearl Harbor, the New World Trade Center built after 9-11.
They are places of pause and awe.
Those places are inside our minds - as well as our heart – as well as on this
planet.
In general, they are actual physical places, but they
also have to be in our mind and heart, in our skull, in our being, in our
memory, in our inner temple. Otherwise, we would be more like an animal.
TODAY’S GOSPEL
In today’s gospel from John, we have the scene of the
cleansing of the temple. It’s one of the few scenes that are in all 4 gospels.
As I was reading about this scene from the gospels – I couldn’t
help but think about the Isis group that is destroying sacred places in Iraq
etc. I’ve been reading articles that they want to destroy a lot more Jewish and
Christian places – as well as ancient holy places of worship.
I want to read some articles about the destruction
recently of statues and very ancient cultural and religious images and statues
by Isis. I winced and felt anger – just as what I felt when the Taliban
destroyed those ancient Buddhas in Afghanistan. One was 165 feet high and the
other 114 feet high – both wonders of the ancient world and sacred – both
pilgrimage places – for people from China and Japan and elsewhere.
I need to compare Jesus' angry dissent the day he cleansed the temple - to the anger these folks who destroy shrines and holy images - and much worse - kill people.
Is that what folks felt that day in the temple when Jesus
overturned the money changers tables and with a whip drove out the animals in
the temple.
Is one a purging; is the other a destructive outburst?
I remember a mother telling me that at least 3 times she
went into an uproar with her kids for the mess they were making of their home
and ruining the family. She would open up a dining room cabinet with her best
plates and start tossing them and breaking them all. Each time she got their attention – for a
while.
I want to read some articles about what goes on peoples’
minds and hearts when these things happen in their lives.
What about when people violate the sacredness
of their marriage and their marriage bed?
What about the horror of child abuse – by priests,
teachers, family members.
Haven’t we all heard the comment: Is anything sacred anymore?
THE INNER
TEMPLE
In today’s gospel from John, we hear Jesus talk about the
sacred temple that is invisible - the one inside our person, inside our being.
In the gospel of Matthew, we hear Jesus talk about the
inner room – the sacred inner room inside each of us.
What does that look like? Is it vacant? Is it dirty? Is
it a disaster?
Some people don’t get that. Some people had no clue what Jesus was
talking about when he talked about the temple in Jerusalem taking 46 years to
build – and the temple that he was – would be destroyed - but will be
rebuilt n 3 days.
Christianity talks about the inner temple in a human
being – that it is a sacred place – and asks the question: “Do we enter that
sacred place every day.”
CONCLUSION
Lent is a good time to spend time in our inner being.
The first step is the cleansing – the so called Purgative
Way.
Lent is a good time to go into churches, adoration
chapels, but above all – to go into our very desert, inner room, and get in
touch with our very being.
Today’s gospel ends with mention that Jesus knew the human
heart.
Lent is a good time to go daily into our inner temple –
check it out – cleanse it out and be in communion with Christ within.
I like quiet back benches in dark afternoon churches –
with nobody there but Christ and myself.
I like a comfortable chair in my room – in a corner – a
chair I call my prayer chair.
I think time spend in inner rooms – helps my time in
outer rooms – outer chairs and benches – like Sunday Mass in a temple like
this.
Amen.
