Welcome to Day 5 of our Lenten Reflections!  To subscribe to receive a link to the podcast and this transcript by email, click here.

A reflection on John 2:13-25

“Zeal for thy house will consume me.” (v 17, Ps 69:9)

Jesus comes to the Temple, a house of prayer, the dwelling place of His Father.  Rather than right worship, he finds there greed, filth, impurity.  Zeal consumes Him, and He drives them out.  “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God?” (1 Cor 6:19)  We are each the Father’s house.  That same passion that Jesus has for the Temple, he has also for us.

When Jesus turned the water into wine, He gave us a glimpse of the Father’s heart for the broken-hearted. When he drives out the money changers and animals, he is showing us the Father’s will.  Before He can truly fill us, He must first empty us of all that stands between us and Him.  He wants to cleanse us with His love and mercy, so that He can come into our hearts and fill every corner of our souls.  We must look into our hearts and acknowledge the wounds and strongholds, the stains of sin, the self-righteousness that reside there.  We must renounce those things that keep Him out.  Then, He can come in and truly make His home in us.

Will we be like the Pharisees, asking, “What proof do you have?” Or will we humbly submit to his cleansing?

What does He find when He comes into my soul?  Will I allow Him to drive out those things that are not fit for the Father’s house?

My Jesus, you see everything in me, the good and the bad.  In your name, Jesus, I renounce all that is in me that is not of You.  I submit to you.  Cleanse my soul of all that keeps me from attaching wholly to you.

Scripture quotations are from The Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright ©1965, 1966 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved worldwide.