3rd Sunday of Lent
This Sunday, our sisters from the community of Barasat in India share their light with us.
The community of Barasat
John: 2: 13-25.
"Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up"
As the Jewish Passover was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
In the Temple he found installed the merchants of oxen, sheep and doves and the money changers.
He made a whip with cords, and drove him all out of the temple,
as well as the sheep and the oxen;
he threw the money-changers on the ground,
knocked over their counters, and said to the dove-merchants,
"Get this out of here. Stop making my Father's house a house of commerce.
His disciples remembered that it is written: The love of your house will be my torment.
Jews called out to him: "What sign can you give us to do this?
Jesus answered them, Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up.
The Jews replied:
"It took forty-six years to build this sanctuary, and you, in three days you would raise it up!"
But he was talking about the sanctuary of his body.
So when he awoke from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this;
they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
While he was in Jerusalem for the Passover feast,
many believed on his name, seeing the signs he was performing.
Jesus did not trust them because they all knew them and needed no testimony about man;
he, in fact, knew what was in man.
Jesus tells us that we must be clean, to clean our temple.
Sell and change
-Jesus saw many animals and money changed between people; what it means for business people who are very busy doing their BUSINESS. Looking at their way of doing things, Jesus got angry because it did not correspond to where they are.
- Jesus is putting things in order, there was so much confusion. He wants them to understand that the Temple and its rituals can satisfy an illusory and temporal need which is the opposite of a place where one must believe in God who gives himself. So he didn't go back but took the courage to drive them out of the Temple.
- he orders to remove, to destroy that which has nothing to do with faith. What is practicing does not correspond to what they have heard, learned by speaking. They remained on the built stone but they do not understand that the practices must lead to the knowledge of God who saves.
- "What sign can you give us ... In three days I will pick it up". Jesus speaks of himself, of his surrendered life, of the true dedication worthy of a Temple.
Don't make my temple a market place.
Market
Temple
• There are crowds and noises
• Dirt everywhere
• Bad smell
• Speak, negotiate aloud.
• No satisfaction, spend a lot of money.
• We can buy and it will destroy
• From the crowd but silence
• There are the crowd but silence
•Clean
• Holy smell
• Speak with God in silence.
• No speculation of money but full of peace of mind.
• Something that lasts and that you can count on
- Pigeon: a symbol of the Holy Spirit at the time of the Baptism of Jesus in (Mt3. 16) and represents the offering of the poor at the time of the presentation of Jesus in the temple (Lk. 2:24). God speaks with signs but Jesus is the living sign of uninteresting love because he is going to give himself. A gift that cannot be bought and that everyone, the poor can enjoy.
"In Jerusalem many believed on his name at the sight of the signs he performed. "
- Jesus had knowledge beyond human limits, in the crowd there were people who have each other's hearts and minds full of jealousy and will bring him down, he knows that among them will kill him. So in our life so often these temptations happen, even we do well, others will find fault with it, so Jesus tells us to be courageous, to have a pure heart and to do the best for others.
The most important thing for him is to lay down his life as agreed with his Father. He wants to go all the way to live and show that he is the new temple. A testimony that the disciples will remember at the time of his resurrection.
We are invited to recognize the signs of true love but not to have fallen into practices that do not make sense for our salvation.
The community of Barasat