A HOT-TEMPERED JESUS?

 

A HOT-TEMPERED JESUS? 

Are you a hot-tempered person? Then you must enjoy today’s Gospel passage  about the cleansing of the Temple. But before you take Jesus as a model and an  excuse for your outbursts, reflect a bit more about the situation. Wasn’t Jesus  the incarnation of God’s love? Didn’t He say He was meek and humble? Surely  He was not a hot-tempered man. 

We said yesterday that Jesus shed tears not so much about the destruction  of a building, but because of the suffering people inflict on themselves when  they refuse to listen to His message of peace. Similarly, the cleansing of the  Temple is not just the cleaning of the holy building, of the House of God from  business and corruption. The Temple stands for God’s relationship with His  people, the Body of Jesus who compared His Body with the Temple. It stands  for all followers of Christ whom Saint Paul called “temples of the Holy Spirit.” 

As the Temple area was polluted by moneymaking vendors, the relationship  of Israel with God had been polluted by greed and rebellion. Prophets and  people sent by God had been persecuted and even killed. This pained Jesus so  much that in a prophetic action, He showed the people how they were offending  the love and kindness of God. And soon they would arrest, torture, and even  kill Him, the real Temple of God. 

But Jesus also saw the defilement of many temples of the Holy Spirit, of  us. There are those who ignore God and engage in premarital sex but then cry  when a baby is on the way. There are many marriages where a partner becomes  unfaithful. There are those who engage in corruption and end up suffering  when they are exposed. So much evil is done by us! 

Jesus wants us to be saved. But we often live our life as if there were  no eternal tomorrow. Look at the angry Jesus today, at the frustration of a  lover whose love is refused, the frustration of loving parents who experience  ingratitude. Do you want to cause Him that pain? Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD

 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS 

Which sin or bad habit defiles most the temple of the Holy Spirit that is your  body? What are you going to do to avoid this sin?  

Lord, whenever I am tempted to sin, make me remember Your love and how much sin hurts You.  Amen. 

Today, I pray for: __________________________________________________________