How can you be an instrument of mercy in your own way? - Daily Reflections April 7,2014

MERCY AT THE TEMPLE AREA

 

For many years now, as a priest of 25 Easters (for I was ordained on an Easter Sunday in 1988), I have preached on this Gospel story which St. Augustine fondly refers to as the “Meeting of Justice and Mercy.” One little detail that strikes me now, though, is the reference to the Temple area as a venue of this periscope.

       There was only one Temple ordained for all the 12 tribes of Israel. This one Temple — first a movable Tent of Meeting that journeyed with the tribes since Moses’ time — had the Holy of Holies, a revered and veiled sanctuary where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. As an edifice, it was a concrete reminder that Israel was covenanted to the One True God.

       The Temple was the place where the “Shekinah” (the Overshadowing Divine Presence) resided. There, the whole of Israel congregated to offer meticulous and elaborate worship and offerings to God. Before Him who gave Israel its freedom, identity and laws, there was holy  fear. The Old Testament tradition underscored God as majestic, awesome and truly just. His laws, ordinances and precepts are to be obeyed, for He rewards and punishes to the third and the fourth generations.

       Jesus adds a new emphasis: God is just but He is kind and merciful too. In fact, His mercy endures more than His justice. His mercy tempers His justice. Jesus demonstrates this at the Temple.

       We, the Church of the New Testament, should then be a Church of Mercy. As I write these verses, I and 33 other Filipino pilgrims are a day away from a General Audience with Pope Francis. We witnessed how everyone — the faithful, the secularists and curious tourists — is edified by the gentle, compassionate and merciful face of Christianity embodied by the new Pope, who went around on a popemobile sans any bulletproof glass. He was greeting everyone, kissing children, and blessing the sick and the elderly. He reminded everyone of the gentle charism of the late Blessed John Paul II, another face of a merciful Church. Domie Guzman, SSP

 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: How do you experience your community, your congregation, or your parish as a witness to the “Merciful Jesus at the Temple area”? How can you be an instrument of mercy in your own way?

 

Let Your mercy be imprinted in my heart, O Lord.