By Newton Basumatari csc –
Readings: Ez 47: 1-2, 8-9, 12; 1 Cor 3: 9c-11, 16-17; Jn 2:13-22
In today’s readings, we hear Jesus getting angry because people made the place of worship into a market. Jesus was not against the temple but at what it had become: a marketplace more than a place of worship. From the book of Ezekiel, we have heard how the water which flows from the temple generates life.
Similarly, Jesus spoke about the temple, which is his own body. His body is considered as a life-giving temple, like the water which flows from the temple. Saint Paul confirms the statement in his letter to Corinthians by saying that we are temples of God in the world.
As we celebrate the feast of the dedication of the Lateran Basilica today, we hear about the temple in the readings. Temple is the dwelling place of God, and when he dwells in us, we experience his power in our lives. Therefore, we need to keep up the sanctity and holiness of this temple. There is a possibility of making it unholy or dirty. When I am full of pride, and I do not want to change myself, I may make his dwelling place as unholy and dirty.
Through the gospel, Jesus invites me to keep the temple clean and not to make it corrupt or dirty by way of my sinful way of life. I can keep God’s temple clean and holy when I develop a relationship with God through my prayer, when I regularly do my recollections etc. It is our Christian duty to remind each other to keep our temples holy and pure, so that God may come and dwell in his temple, which is our body.