GOSPEL POWER - NOVEMBER 20, 2020 FRIDAY - 33rd Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Lk 19:45-48

 Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; and he said, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer;’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him; but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.

Reflection:

Jesus comes to reclaim what he, as a boy of twelve, referred to as “my Father’s house” (Lk 2:49). Who will not feel indignant over the defilement of one’s paternal home? Jesus’ act of cleansing the temple is prophetic. He restores the temple’s true function as a house of prayer, in accord with Isaiah’s prophecy (cf. Is 56:7). And echoing Jeremiah’s denunciation of the idolatry of Judah (cf. Jer 7:11), Jesus puts an end to the misuse of the temple as a center of trade, with all the corruption that commerce entails. With the confidence of the legitimate owner, Jesus occupies the temple as the center of his ministry. And not even the corrupt and scheming religious leaders can do anything to inflict harm on him before the appointed time.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, may we too revere the temples of our body, which belong to you and whose ultimate function is to bring glory to you. Amen.