By Nameswar BaliarSingh csc –
Readings: 1Mac 4:36-37, 52-59; Lk 19:45-48
The house of God shall be called the house of prayer. The house of God is a house of prayer and not anything else. In the present world, people do not show their reverence to the Church. Some consider it as a marketplace, some others as a place of social interaction or of cultural
demonstration, and people create noise, laugh, and enjoy.
But the question is, do they have a prayerful experience in the house of God? Is it with a pure intention or is it just a way to enjoy? Today Jesus tells me what my attitude in the Church should be and how I should spend my time there. There are many people who come to seek Lord. Do I give chance to others who are sitting beside me to pray?
The person sitting next to me in the Church may be a sinner looking for God’s love, or he may be broken or seeking God’s mercy and to experience his presence in order to get blessings from God. What should be my intention in the Church while sitting with them? What am I looking for? Am I there to seek the Lord?
Today Jesus invites me to make his Church a sacred place and not something else. St. Paul reminds me by saying, ‘our body is the temple of God’. Therefore, this is an invitation for me from Jesus that I am a temple of God and I need to keep my thoughts pure, fill myself with a spirit of holiness to have Jesus in my heart, and drive out all bad intentions and actions, hatred and pride because all these makes me unworthy and my heart impure. Through this gospel, Jesus demands a change in me in order to purify my heart. It is also an invitation to remember the den of robbers and turn it into a house of prayer. May the love of Jesus redeem us.