3rd Sunday of Lent: Homily by Fr Vigoa — Transcript

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1. 0:02so on this third Sunday of Lent we have
2. 0:05the so-called cleansing of the temple
3. 0:08we're reading from the Gospel of John
4. 0:10but the cleansing of the temple is an
5. 0:12event that is recorded in all four
6. 0:15gospels so we know that the evangelists
7. 0:17all saw something of extraordinary
8. 0:20importance even beyond the event
9. 0:23itself plus we're hearing this account
10. 0:25proclaimed to US during
11. 0:28Lent so that tells us something there
12. 0:32are just a few Sundays in Lent and so
13. 0:34the church must choose from all the
14. 0:36different gospels what to Proclaim to
15. 0:39the whole world during this
16. 0:41season the cleansing of the temple
17. 0:44therefore will tell us something about
18. 0:45the mission of Christ and as we will see
19. 0:48it gives a very important lesson to on
20. 0:52discipleship especially during this time
21. 0:54of
22. 0:55Lent so our setting for today is the
23. 0:58Temple of Jerusalem and we need to
24. 1:01understand that during the time of Jesus
25. 1:03while Jesus walked on Earth the temple
26. 1:05in Jerusalem was everything it was the
27. 1:08economic political religious Center of
28. 1:11life for
29. 1:12everyone everything absolutely
30. 1:15everything revolved around the temple
31. 1:18but even more importantly the temple was
32. 1:20the physical Dwelling Place of God here
33. 1:22on
34. 1:23Earth there inside the temple deep
35. 1:25within the bowels of that sacred Place
36. 1:28guarded and hidden away in the innermost
37. 1:31chamber far from the sight of believer
38. 1:33was the holy of
39. 1:35holies where even the priest could only
40. 1:38infrequently go in there because that
41. 1:41was where God
42. 1:43dwell besides being an enormous and
43. 1:46glorious building to behold it was the
44. 1:48place where God and man met it was a
45. 1:52privileged place of prayer and worship
46. 1:54of God but the temple played a vital
47. 1:57role in the religious life of people
48. 1:59there was and in effect a system of
49. 2:02animal sacrifices for various rituals
50. 2:05including Passover now this may sound uh
51. 2:09gross to our modern-day sensibilities
52. 2:11but that that system had been ordained
53. 2:14by God by by over a thousand years
54. 2:16earlier and the people Faithfully
55. 2:19practiced
56. 2:20it people coming to the temple from near
57. 2:22and far had to purchase these animal for
58. 2:24the sacrifices and they had to exchange
59. 2:27their foreign money into the local
60. 2:30currency and so you would see animal
61. 2:32pens where oxen and sheep doves and all
62. 2:36different types of animals were sold and
63. 2:39money changers were there and they would
64. 2:41set up their tables and all of their
65. 2:43belongings and over time it was just a
66. 2:45lot of stuff and the problem was as well
67. 2:48that the system became corrupt we hear
68. 2:52about this throughout the the books of
69. 2:55the Old
70. 2:56Testament the vendors were overcharging
71. 2:59and the money Changers uh were were
72. 3:02exacting this exorbitant amount of fees
73. 3:05but the temple had become a secular
74. 3:07Marketplace or as Jesus describes it in
75. 3:09the gospel of Mark it had become a den
76. 3:12of Thieves had become
77. 3:14defiled that which was supposed to be a
78. 3:17very holy Place Holy Ground totally
79. 3:20dedicated to God had become tainted and
80. 3:23stained so he undertakes this action
81. 3:26that we read about in the four Gospels
82. 3:29taking a whip and then driving out the
83. 3:31animals from the temple overturning the
84. 3:34money changers
85. 3:35tables now we need to understand that
86. 3:38Jesus is not behaving as some sort of
87. 3:40anti-establishment extremist some sort
88. 3:43of 60s radical or anti- capitalist
89. 3:47fanatic that's not what we're seeing
90. 3:49here he sought to cleanse and to purify
91. 3:52the temple so that it could be that
92. 3:54place of prayer that point of encounter
93. 3:57between God and man and a place that was
94. 4:00worthy and fitting a place where God
95. 4:03himself could
96. 4:05dwell because you see God Is So holy and
97. 4:09right worship of God so Central to the
98. 4:12life of all the faithful that nothing
99. 4:14absolutely nothing foreign nothing
100. 4:17foreign to God could occupy or should
101. 4:20occupy that space that's why he got the
102. 4:24Whip and drove out the animals and
103. 4:25that's why he overturns those tables now
104. 4:29all of that is a great history lesson
105. 4:31but there's more there's a reason why
106. 4:33the church proclaims this gospel during
107. 4:36Lent it flows from apart from a a
108. 4:39shocking and enlightened teaching given
109. 4:41to us by St Paul he proclaims in the
110. 4:43first letter to the Corinthians these
111. 4:45words he says do you not know that you
112. 4:48are a temple of God that your bodies are
113. 4:52a Dwelling Place of the Holy Spirit now
114. 4:55I'm sure you've heard this before it's a
115. 4:57staggering Revelation a teach teing of
116. 5:00unimaginable meaning and consequences
117. 5:02when people heard this during the time
118. 5:03of St Paul they were saying wait a
119. 5:05minute
120. 5:06what but with the coming of Christ and
121. 5:09the sending of the holy spirit that
122. 5:10dwelling a place of God is no longer
123. 5:13that beautiful glorious humongous temple
124. 5:16in Jerusalem but the very bodies of
125. 5:18those who are baptized it's no longer
126. 5:21far from sight or inacessible rather God
127. 5:25then now dwells within
128. 5:27us all the ways in which we've describe
129. 5:30the glory of the temple in Jerusalem now
130. 5:32apply to each and every one of us who
131. 5:34are believers in which the holy of holy
132. 5:37now
133. 5:38resides it's an unfathomable gift to us
134. 5:41and as I said it is one that has great
135. 5:43meaning and
136. 5:45consequence if your body is supposed to
137. 5:48be the temple of God and we're not meant
138. 5:50to understand this as some sort of
139. 5:52metaphor or some sort of kind of goofy
140. 5:55Cosmic understanding of
141. 5:57this but think about this if you're body
142. 5:59is supposed to be the temple of God the
143. 6:02very place where God
144. 6:04dwells what does that mean to
145. 6:07you how does that impact us how does it
146. 6:10inform everything that we
147. 6:13do well simply put if your body is the
148. 6:16temple of God then every part of your
149. 6:18life is supposed to be turned over to
150. 6:20God your mind your will your heart your
151. 6:23Effectiveness your affections your
152. 6:25appetites your thoughts your desires
153. 6:28absolutely everything needs to be turned
154. 6:29over to God every word every judgment
155. 6:33every action every choice is informed
156. 6:37and directed by the presence of God
157. 6:39that's within you this is
158. 6:42huge we see how radical is the call to
159. 6:45sanctity and Holiness how total it is to
160. 6:48our response to this unimaginable gift
161. 6:51that God gives to us that's what it
162. 6:54means to be a disciple of Christ so
163. 6:57therefore nothing foreign to God can EX
164. 6:59exist within us nothing sinful can
165. 7:01occupy and corrupt that place where God
166. 7:03wishes to dwell that's what it means
167. 7:06when we say God desires for you to be
168. 7:10holy whatever is in us that is not
169. 7:13dedicated to God needs to be reformed it
170. 7:16needs to be converted and it needs to be
171. 7:19purified so what if what if you allowed
172. 7:23Christ Jesus to enter into your temple
173. 7:26what if you invited him all the way in
174. 7:29what if you asked him to make his
175. 7:31dwelling place within you what would he
176. 7:35do he would come with his Whip and drive
177. 7:38out the sinfulness what is incompatible
178. 7:41what is contrary to
179. 7:43Holiness would he overturn all those
180. 7:46things that are corrupt and not of God
181. 7:49in a word he would cleanse you not with
182. 7:53anger or harsh words but with compassion
183. 7:56for we are inviting him he will cleanse
184. 7:59our temples we just need to invite him
185. 8:03and indeed he does desire to cleanse us
186. 8:06that's why the church proclaims this
187. 8:07reading during the season of
188. 8:09Lent confession the great sacrament of
189. 8:12Mercy the sacrament of
190. 8:14reconciliation is the ideal place for
191. 8:16this cleansing it's one of the reasons
192. 8:18why as you've noticed in the bulletin
193. 8:20and we've been talking about it we we
194. 8:22emphasize
195. 8:23confessions a lot during Lent and I
196. 8:26encourage you to Avail yourselves to the
197. 8:28sacrament of confession
198. 8:30we heard from St Paul and in closing I
199. 8:32just want to give you I want to I want
200. 8:34you to hear from the Lord himself who
201. 8:36told his disciples at the Last Supper
202. 8:39this whoever loves me will keep my word
203. 8:42and my father will love him we will come
204. 8:45to him and make our dwelling with
205. 8:48him Christ himself affirms this
206. 8:52inconceivable desire to reside in our
207. 8:55very
208. 8:57bodies my brothers and sisters As We
209. 8:59Gather for this third Sunday of Lent let
210. 9:03us all this Lent
211. 9:05repent turn back to him seek Holiness
212. 9:09allow him to cleanse our Temple and to
213. 9:11provide to him a fitting and holy place
214. 9:15for him to dwell amen