November 23, 2018
Friday, 33rd Week in
Ordinary Time1st
Reading: Rv 10:8-11
Gospel: Lk 19:45–48
Jesus entered the Temple area and began to drive out themerchants. And he said to them, “God says in the Scriptures: My houseshall be a house of prayer: but you have turned it into a den ofrobbers.”Jesus was teaching every day in the Temple. The chief priests andteachers of the Law wanted to kill him and the elders of the Jews aswell, but they were unable to do anything, for all the people werelistening to him and hanging on his words.
DD@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
Jesus accused the Temple vendors as turning God’s house into a den of thieves. Did Jesus equate vending with theft? A second question hangs: Are thieves considered persona non grata in God’s house?
The first question must be answered in the negative because business, if conducted honestly, greases the gears of the engine of economy. Jesus couldn’t have intended to totally ban money-changing activities in the Temple precincts. Jewish laws allowed no foreign coins into the donation box of the Temple. It was also important that there were animals sold for the Temple sacrifice because there were strict requirements for an animal to qualify as sacrificial offering.
What Jesus was angry about was the overpricing of products and services at exorbitant proportions. They deserved to be called thieves for indeed they robbed even indigent worshippers of their hard earned money.
To answer the second question we must make some distinctions. In the gospels Jesus made a categorical promise of salvation only to a thief (a big time thief) at Calvary. If small-time thieves at the Temple area consisting of money-changers and sellers of animals are persona non grata in God’s house, what is a big time criminal like Dimas doing in heaven? Repentance spells the difference. While the ‘thieves’ at the Temple were enriching themselves at the expense of worshippers, the thief crucified at Calvary was a repentant thief.
Today’s Gospel makes us guilty. Let’s talk about misdemeanors that partake of the nature of theft in an analogous manner. We steal respect from God when we dress presentably at parties but appear so shabbily clad at Masses. We steal from fellow churchgoers the ambience conducive to prayer when we do scandalous acts at Masses such as using our cell phones. We steal time from God when we come late for the Eucharistic celebration.
With rampant theft going on literally and figuratively in our housesof prayer, will any worshipper be left after Jesus drives away thievesfrom our houses of prayer? – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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