Cleansing of the Temple

                                    The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

                                   

Giotto: Cleansing of the Temple

           

It is unusual to have a feast day dedicated to a church building. In fact, there is only one such day in the Church calendar, and that is today’s feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica. The Lateran Basilica is one of the most important churches in Christendom. Its original construction early in the third century after Christ marked the advent of the toleration of Christianity in the pagan Roman Empire by the Emperor Constantine.

Constantine’s edict of toleration came right after one of the most large scale and brutal persecutions of the Church by Constantine’s predecessor Diocletian. In that persecution practically every Christian church had been vandalized or destroyed. Constantine signaled a change of policy by granting land on Rome’s Lateran hill for the construction of a new church. From that time to today the Lateran Basilica has been the seat or cathedral of the Pope in his capacity as Bishop of Rome.

Despite its importance, the Church takes the opportunity in today’s readings to make an even more important point. In the first reading from the Prophet Ezekiel we see that a stream of water flows from the Temple, and that the water will irrigate or give life to the whole land. The Temple is the House of God, and the water is a symbol of the Spirit of God that gives life to us all. Some commentators even see the water as a symbol of the water that flowed from the side of Christ after He had been pierced by the centurion’s lance at the Crucifixion.

In today’s gospel we see that Jesus identifies himself with the Temple. It is that famous scene that takes place almost at the beginning of the gospel of John where Jesus drives the moneychangers and sellers of sacrificial animals out of the Temple. Jesus is shocked by the desecration of the Temple and in a rare display of anger; he literally drives the offenders out, and tells then to take their animals with them.

Take these out of here,

And stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.

The onlookers take offense at his disruption of this business that everyone regarded as normal and traditional. They ask him for a sign that might explain or justify his seemingly rash action. Jesus usually ignores requests for miraculous signs but in this case he gives a shocking and mysterious answer.

Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.

He calls Himself a Temple, and even though the onlookers misunderstood, we understand that he was referring to his own death and resurrection. Like the Temple in the Prophet Ezekiel’s vision, Jesus will be the source of the living water that will irrigate the world. He will prove it by his Resurrection three days after he is put to death.

In today’s second reading from his first letter to the newly converted Christians in Corinth, St. Paul says something even more amazing.

Brothers and sisters:You are God’s building….Do you not know that you are the temple of God,And that the Spirit of God dwells in you?If anyone destroys god’s temple,God will destroy that person;For the temple of God, which you are, is holy.

Jesus referred to Himself as a Temple, and St. Paul goes a step further and claims that the Christian community, no matter how big or small, is also a Temple in which the Spirit of God dwells. It is not so much the building or structure but the people who come together there to worship with Jesus. We are the temple from which the living waters flow.

This concept was incredible and revolutionary in the time of Jesus and St. Paul, and is still revolutionary today. A building, no matter how magnificent or beautiful, is just an artifact or historical monument without a congregation of believers. Jesus did say, “where ever two or more of you are gathered together in my name, there I am among you.”

If we are the Temple of God, then we are also called to be the living waters that flow from the Temple. It is up to us in our own little way to renew the face of the earth.

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Reading 1. Ezekiel 47: 1-2, 8-9, 12

Reading II. 1 Corinthians 3: 9c-11, 16-17

Gospel. John 2: 13-22 (Cleansing of the Temple)

All Saints Day

                                    All Saints Day

                                 

Resurrected Lamb of God surrounded by symbols of Apostles
Our Lady of the Assumption, Fairfield CT*

The month of November is sometimes called the month of the dead. As we look around we see the leaves falling from the trees, the sun riding lower in the sky and setting earlier and earlier. Animals are preparing for the long cold winter. The Church year also follows the cycle of nature. We begin this month with the great feast of All Saints, and then remember all the departed today on All Souls day. Throughout the month we will remember our beloved departed and at the end of the month we will celebrate the feast of Christ the King where we will come face to face with the end of the world and the Last Judgment.

This weekend’s two great feasts deal not with death, however, but with triumph over death. The first reading for All Saints day is taken from the Book of Revelation. In his vision John sees an angel who holds off the powers about to destroy the world.

Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees

Until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.

John numbers these servants as 144000 but who takes time in a vision to count. Twelve is the mystical number that signifies completeness and 12 times 12 equals 144, as if to say completeness squared. Multiply 144 times 1000 and we realize that the vision includes a multitude. John says as much in the next verse,

After this I had a vision of a great multitude,

Which no one could count,

From every nation, race, people, and tongue.

The gospel for All Saints is the account of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus identifies the Blessed who will inherit the Kingdom. The are the poor in spirit, they who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness.

The second reading for All Saints is from the first Letter of John. John identifies the saints not as marble or plaster statues but as the children of God. He says “we are God’s children,” and as such holds out the hope that we all can become like our Father in Heaven.

High up on the wall in the back of many churches, we can observe a great stained glass window that is often called a rose window because it is shaped like a flower with a central core with twelve petals surrounding the core. In the core there will be either the figure of the resurrected Jesus, or the symbolic Lamb of God. Symbols of each of the twelve Apostles will be found in the petals. There is that number 12 again signifying that the Apostles represent all the saints. Like the Apostles the saints were ordinary men and women who by the grace of God were able to overcome their weaknesses, and become good and faithful servants.

In a small chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome the great painter Caravaggio portrayed two of these ordinary men across from each other. He portrayed St. Peter about to be crucified at the end of his mission, and St, Paul at his conversion, the start of his mission. He portrayed them as ordinary human beings like us or our brothers and sisters being persecuted even today all over the world.

Caravaggio: Crucifixion of Peter

Caravaggio: Conversion of Paul

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* Assumption church window image by Melissa DeStefano. (click on images to enlarge)

Reading 1. Revelations 7: 2-4, 9-14

Reading II. 1 John 3: 1-3

Gospel. Matthew 5: 1-12a (Blessed are…)

The Greatest Commandment

                           30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

                           

      

Today’s readings deal with the true spirit of Jewish law, the law that Jesus came not to abolish, but to fulfill. In today’s first reading from the Book of Exodus we see that the commandments of the law required aid and support of the weak and powerless.

Aliens or people displaced from their homeland are deserving of protection. The Lord reminds his people that they themselves were once aliens. Widows and orphans were also vulnerable in a society where a father or husband was the sole means of support and protection for women and children. The Lord reminds his people that there wives and children could also be left out in the cold. The Lord also commands his people to help their needy neighbors, and not drive them further into poverty and misery.

In the past few weeks we have been going through chapter 22 of the gospel of Matthew, a chapter that describes the increasing tension between Jesus and the various Jewish leaders. Initially, Jesus had been critical of them for their failure to be faithful to the true spirit of Jewish law.

In return they resorted to plotting against Jesus by trying to get him to say something that will either get him into trouble with the Roman authorities, or cause the Jewish populace to turn against him. Although they couldn’t stand each other, each faction takes their own shot at Jesus. Pharisees, Herodians and Sadducees all try to trip him up.

In today’s gospel passage they ask him “which commandment in the law is he greatest?” Jesus knew that scholars had counted over six hundred commandments in the Law but, as usual, he chose to simplify and get right to the true spirit of the Law.

         You shall love the Lord, your God,

With all your heart,

With all your soul,

And with all your mind.

This is the greatest and first commandment.

The second is like it:

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

In his reply Jesus combines two verses from the Hebrew Scriptures, the first from Deuteronomy 6:5, and the second from Leviticus 19: 18ff. He combines them because his whole life and mission was to show that the love of God and the love of neighbor went hand in hand. One is not possible without the other.

Moreover, in his teaching Jesus also extended the very meaning of neighbor. We recall that in the famous parable of the Good Samaritan, he asked, “who was neighbor to the man”? In our Lord’s time, just as in the days of the Exodus, neighbor had a very narrow meaning. Every people, every city, every tribe, every family was at odds with one another. We see in the gospels that not only would the Jews have nothing to do with strangers, but also that they were constantly bickering among themselves.

Of course, the Jewish people were surrounded by people who behaved even worse. Today, despite the words of our Lord, things do not seem to be much better. In places like Syria and Iraq it seems like only a brutal dictatorship can keep people from cutting each other’s throats. It is hard for us to imagine the animosity among the different factions in that world.

It is also hard for us to imagine how people could believe that they are serving God by brutally beheading alien captives, raping their wives, and selling their orphaned children into slavery. Have we made any progress from the time of the Exodus?

Sadly, it is the followers of Jesus who are enduring the greatest persecution. In fact, the persecution of Christians throughout the world today is far greater than at any time in the past. These people are being dispossessed from their homes, tortured, and even murdered for t heir belief in Christ. They are the true heirs of the Thessalonians that St. Paul praises in today’s second reading. They are the “imitators of the Lord,” and “a model for all believers.”

To love someone means to be willing to give all for him or her. After all, what can we really give to God who has given us everything? Jesus has shown us that the way to loving God is through the love of our neighbor. All that we do for those entrusted to our care and protection, we do for Him. We may not have to suffer the cruel martyrdom of our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world, but we are still called to give our lives in the service of others.

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Reading 1. Exodus: 22: 20-26

Reading II. 1 Thessalonians 1: 5c-10

Gospel. Matthew 22: 34-40 (Love Your Neighbor)

Render to Caesar

                           29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

                          

        

In the past few weeks we have seen that Jesus has become increasingly critical of the leaders of the Jews, especially the Scribes and Pharisees. Matthew tells us that in response they have begun to plot against Jesus. In today’s gospel they try to lay a trap for Jesus by asking him if is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, the leader of the hated Roman empire that holds the Jewish people in subjugation.

In their long history the Jews had often been subjugated by foreign rulers. About 700 years before Jesus, the Prophet Isaiah told of another conqueror, the Persian King Cyrus. Isaiah argued that this great King was actually doing the Lord’s work without even knowing it. 

         It is I who arm you, though you know me not,

So that towards the rising and the setting of the sun

People may know that there is none besides me.

I am the Lord, there is no other.

We know that he relationship between Church and State was an important issue to our Founding Fathers. The very first amendment to the new Constitution forbad the new federal government from establishing or supporting any church. Although we have always argued about the proper relationship between Church and State, the American way seems to involve a separation of church and State.

In the time of Jesus there was no such separation. The head of the mighty Roman Empire was also considered to be the head of the Roman religion. Some emperors had even been declared to be gods. The Jews regarded the Almighty as their true King, and so their political leaders were also their religious leaders. Their law was a religious law and governed every aspect of their lives.

There was bound to be conflict and tension then when the Jews were conquered by the Romans. Even though the Romans could be cruel and brutal when the need arose, they had a way of dealing with conquered peoples that would seem strange to us today. In general Rome believed in leaving conquered people to be governed by their own traditional leaders, laws, and customs. They only insisted that these native leaders keep peace and order, and collect the taxes or tribute demanded by the Empire.

This situation is the background of the scene in Matthew’s account where the leaders of the Jews try to draw Jesus into a trap. They are out to get him not only because of his criticism of them, but also because of his popularity among the people. They ask him a loaded question:

Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?

If Jesus answered that paying the tax violated Jewish law, they would be able to bring charges of sedition and treason against him to the Roman governor. If he answered that it was ok, then they hoped it would turn the Jewish populace against him.

The answer of Jesus confounds his powerful enemies.

Show me the coin that pays the census tax ... whose image is this and whose inscription? 

When they replied, “Caesar’s”, he said,

Then repay to Caesar what belongs to CaesarAnd to God what belongs to God.

Not only did the answer of Jesus confound the Jewish leaders, but it also has confounded theologians and political scholars ever since. What exactly belongs to the State? What belongs to God? What is the relationship between the civil authority and religious authority?

I think that Jesus is saying that we do have a dual citizenship. As citizens here in the United States we have rights and duties that pertain to our status as citizens. We can be critical of leaders and laws because that right and duty belongs to us as citizens. But we are also subject to a King whose realm transcends our national boundaries. I am not talking about the Pope because he is subject to that same King.

Hopefully, our dual loyalties will act together in much the same way that the laws of Connecticut will not conflict with the laws of the United States. For the most part in America they have gone hand in hand although there are signs today that Caesar might be overstepping his boundaries.

In many parts of the world today our fellow Christians are being persecuted, tortured, and even murdered because of their refusal to bow to the demands of their brutal captors. Those people are giving all they have for their belief in God.

We can only hope that we will never be put in this position.

The best safeguard against attacks on religious freedom in this country is for us all to do our duty and act as responsible citizens. We must respect and follow the laws when they are just, but oppose and seek to change them when they are unjust.

So, if we should give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, what are the things we must give to God? We must realize that none of our possessions can have any value for the Almighty. The only thing we can really offer to God is our own self. We have been called to be good and faithful stewards. 

Today's second reading is taken from the opening lines of St. Paul's first letter to the young Christian community at Thessalonia. Speaking for himself, and his co-workers, he says:

We give thanks to God always for all of you,remembering you in all our prayers,increasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of loveand endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ...

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Reading 1. Isaiah 45: 1, 4-6

Reading II. 1 Thessalonians 1: 1-5b

Gospel. Matthew 22: 15-21 (Render to Caesar)