Friday,
November 24, 2017
33rd Week in
Ordinary Time
1st Reading: 1 Mac 4:36-37, 52-59
Gospel: Luke 19:45-48
Jesus entered the Temple area and began to drive out the merchants. And he said to them, “God says in the Scriptures: My house shall be a house of prayer: but you have turned it into a den of robbers.”
Jesus was teaching every day in the Temple. The chief priests and teachers of the Law wanted to kill him and the elders of the Jews as well, but they were unable to do anything, for all the people were listening to him and hanging on his words.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
A church is the last place we expect to find “Beware of thieves” notices because it is supposed to be respected as the house of God. Yet thieves respect no holy places. One church fell victim to a smalltime thief who pretended to be praying at the candle area. He was actually passing a barbeque stick that had a chewing gum at its tip through the narrow slit of the donation box. In another church a thief dipped his hand into the collection bag at the Offertory part of the Mass pretending to drop some coins. Actually he was grabbing a few bills from the collection. These and similar acts, literally turn God’s house into a den of smalltime thieves.
In today’s Gospel reading Jesus laments, “My house shall be a house of prayer: but you have turned it into a den of robbers.” Brisk business at the Temple area irked Jesus. Was he anti-business? We can’t really tell. But he did use business parables when he preached, like the Parable of the Talents (Matt. 25:14-30) and the Parable of the Shrewd Manager (Luke 16:1-13). Was he angry about sales at the
Temple vicinity? No! Temple worshippers needed moneychangers because roman coins were not allowed into the Temple treasury box. They also needed animal merchants; otherwise they would have to drag their own animals for the Temple sacrifice so many miles from their respective homes. What then was Jesus angry about?
Jesus was angry because those merchants were padding the prices of their products and services. This way they were robbing worshippers of their hard-earned money. This is incompatible with true worship. The intensity of Jesus’ indignant disapproval of turning worship into a profiteering activity was evident in what he did. He could have simply flashed a “beware of thieves” sign. He did more. He overturned the moneychangers’ table and drove out the animal merchants.
Now we know the kind of worship God wants! How many people come to worship God with bloody hands because they have unconscionably profited from transactions with their fellowmen? – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
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