Hello desert people 😉
How is your journey towards Easter with Jesus? Wherever you are on your journey don’t give up! During this Lenten time you can give up almost everything but NEVER give up on God, because He would NEVER give up on you!
The central theme of today’s readings is the challenge to keep our Covenant agreement with Jesus Christ, just as the Israelites tried to keep the agreements of the Old Testament Covenant with Yahweh by promising to obey the Ten Commandments. We become people of the New Covenant by loving others as Jesus did, by keeping our parish Church holy and fully dedicated to Divine worship, and by keeping our hearts cleansed, just, holy, and pure because they are temples of the Holy Spirit. Today’s first reading teaches us that the Ten Commandments are the basis of our religious and spiritual life, just as they formed a rule of life for the Israelites because of their Covenant with Yahweh at Mount Sinai.
In the second reading, Paul reminds us that we must live and preach the Divine “folly” of the crucified Christ and the spirit of the cross, especially during the Lenten season. The message of the cross is God’s wisdom and power and, “foolish” as it may seem, that message is greater than the Law, greater than the Temple, greater than worldly wisdom or human strength. And when we look at the Gospel, it gives us the dramatic account of Jesus’ cleansing the Temple of its merchants and moneychangers, followed by a prediction of his death and Resurrection.
What’s the message for us today? We need to avoid a calculating mentality in Divine worship: Our relationship with God must be that of a child to his parent, one of mutual love, respect and a desire for the family’s good, with no thought of personal loss or gain. We are not supposed to think of God as a vending machine into which we put our sacrifices and good deeds to get back His blessings.
Let us remember that we are the temples of the Holy Spirit: St. Paul reminds us that we are God’s temples, body and soul, because the Spirit of God dwells in us. Hence, we have no right to desecrate God’s temple by impurity, injustice, pride, hatred, or jealousy. Let us be cleansed by asking God’s forgiveness through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Let us love our parish Church as our “Father’s house” and use it: Let us make our Church, St. Genevieve – St. Maurice Church, our “Heavenly Father’s house” a holier place by our active participation in the liturgy, by offering our time and talents in the various ministries and by our financial support for its maintenance and development. With Lenten meditation and prayers,
Fr. Tom