20161118 BUILDING THE KINGDOM OF GOD BY
SANCTIFYING THE WORLD THROUGH US
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Green.
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First reading
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Apocalypse
10:8-11 ©
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I, John, heard the
voice I had heard from heaven speaking to me again. ‘Go,’ it said ‘and take
that open scroll out of the hand of the angel standing on sea and land.’ I went
to the angel and asked him to give me the small scroll, and he said, ‘Take it
and eat it; it will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will taste as
sweet as honey.’ So I took it out of the angel’s hand, and swallowed it; it was
as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach turned sour.
Then I was told, ‘You are to prophesy again, this time about many different
nations and countries and languages and emperors.’
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm
118(119):14,24,72,103,111,131 ©
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Your promise is
sweet to my taste, O Lord.
I rejoiced to do your
will
as though
all riches were mine.
Your will is my
delight;
your
statutes are my counsellors.
Your promise is
sweet to my taste, O Lord.
The law from your
mouth means more to me
than
silver and gold.
Your promise is
sweeter to my taste
than
honey in the mouth.
Your promise is
sweet to my taste, O Lord.
Your will is my
heritage for ever,
the joy
of my heart.
I open my mouth and I
sigh
as I
yearn for your commands.
Your promise is
sweet to my taste, O Lord.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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cf.2Tim1:10
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Our Saviour Jesus
Christ abolished death
and he has proclaimed
life through the Good News.
Alleluia!
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Or
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Jn10:27
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The sheep that belong
to me listen to my voice,
says the Lord,
I know them and they
follow me.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Luke 19:45-48 ©
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Jesus went into the
Temple and began driving out those who were selling. ‘According to scripture,’
he said ‘my house will be a house of prayer. But you have turned it into a
robbers’ den.’
He
taught in the Temple every day. The chief priests and the scribes, with the
support of the leading citizens, tried to do away with him, but they did not
see how they could carry this out because the people as a whole hung on his
words.
BUILDING
THE KINGDOM OF GOD BY SANCTIFYING THE WORLD THROUGH US
Tomorrow
evening, we will celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. In this feast,
we anticipate Jesus’ realization of His mission, which is to establish the
kingdom of God. But what has today’s gospel text of the cleansing of the
Temple by Jesus got to do with the realization of the kingdom? It must be
noted that this episode is inserted in St Luke’s gospel immediately after His
entry to Jerusalem, which is the place of Christ’s passion and
glorification. Necessarily, there is a close link between the kingdom,
which Jesus has come to establish, and the purification of the Temple of
Jerusalem.
In
order to see this connection, we must realize that the cleansing of the Temple
by Jesus is a prophetic act fulfilling the prophecy of Malachi when the prophet
spoke of the messiah who would come to the temple to purify the sons of Levi so
that right offerings could be presented to the Lord once again. Purifying
the Temple is therefore part of the process of establishing the kingdom of
God. This is because when we speak of the kingdom, we are referring to
the fact of God’s reign in our hearts. The kingdom is synonymous with the
rule of God in the world, especially in the hearts of men.
Indeed,
what is the symbol of the temple? As individuals, we are called to be the
temple of the Holy Spirit. When we live the life of Christ in the Spirit,
we become the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Collectively, as a
community of Christians and as Church, we are called the Temple of God.
But before the Church can be the Temple of God, we must, as individuals, be the
dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. In claiming that we are living the
life of the Spirit, we are in effect saying that God lives in us.
Therefore God reigns in our lives. Indeed, a few days earlier, we read in
the book of Revelation where Jesus is seen standing at the door of our hearts
knocking, saying, “If one of you hears me calling and opens the door, I will
come in to share his meal, side by side with him.”
What does it mean then to
purify the Temple of God? We must be careful not to see it only from the
spiritual or ritualistic meaning. When Jesus drove out the traders, it
was not because it was wrong to sell animals because they were needed for
temple worship and sacrifice. Rather it was because they were making
financial gains and profiteering from selling the animals at an exorbitant
price, depriving the poor of the opportunity to offer sacrifices. What
was even more disgusting was that the traders were in cahoots with the temple
officials, monopolizing the trade. The truth is that the priests would
find fault with the animals sold outside the temple and refused them as worthy
for the sacrifice, thereby forcing the poor to buy from the official sellers at
the Temple. Such were the abuses and cheating that were being
practised. Rightly so, Jesus citing the scriptures said, “My house will
be a house of prayer. But you have turned it into a robbers’
den.” The temple was literally a robbers’ den indeed.
Thus,
we would be interpreting it wrongly if we think that Jesus was condemning the
traders for selling the animals; implying that there is a separation between
the sacred and the profane. We must hold that the world is not separated
from God. The fact that animal sacrifices were used as a means of worship
meant that everything is worthy of God. At any rate, God had created the
world and God found it to be good. Even in Christian worship, at the
offertory, we bless God for the gifts of creation, which we bring to
worship. The value of creation is further given basis in the doctrine of
the Incarnation. So, we must not misinterpret the action of Jesus as His
intention to separate earthly matters from spiritual matters. On the
contrary, the intrinsic connection between them is seen in that the world needs
to be sanctified. All mundane matters when employed correctly are fit for
worship. So we are called to sanctify the world. How do we do
this?
We
sanctify the world and all mundane matters when we employ our work, studies,
sufferings, sicknesses, friendships, recreation and our services for the good
of the world and ourselves. Every earthly thing is sanctified when
we have a godly and spiritual motive in what we do. In the final
analysis, it is not what we do in life that matters but why we do it. We
must therefore purify our intention so that what we do is not for selfish and
ambitious motives but for the love of God and others.
Hence,
what is required of us is that we must purify the temple within us. We
must purify our motives in all that we do, whether it is studies, our ministry
or doing good works. Things by themselves are neutral. But when we
make use of the things or talents God gave to us with the right motives, they
can become the mediators of God. So if not used properly and abused by
man, the creation of God can be used to destroy men. For example,
pleasure, entertainment, food, technology and even work can destroy us if we do
not use them for the service of love and unity. After all, God created
the world to be good but men, because of selfishness, have destroyed it by sin.
Thus, we can see that the relationship between the kingdom of God and the
purification of the Temple is that we are called to restore the whole of
creation through sanctification.
How can this be done?
In the book of Revelation, the angel exhorts us to take the scroll and “eat it;
it will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will taste as sweet as
honey.” What is this scroll if not the Word of God and His
Promises? Truly, eating the Word is a sweet experience because the Word
gives light, inspiration and hope. The psalmist says, “Your promise is sweet to
my taste.” But that sweetness can only come about with tasting the sour
experience in our stomach. We can share the sweetness of victory only if
we are willing to stomach the pains of purification of our motives; the painful
process of growing in humility and authenticity and truth. Purification
is always a painful process.
Indeed,
the book of Revelation was written to Christians under persecution. The
Christian church was under the persecution of the Roman Emperor Domitian; and
the Christians needed courage, strength and hope. In view of their
tribulations, this book was written to remind them that through the process of
purification, their faith would be stronger still.
Jesus Himself too had to
face opposition when He tried to purify the temple. By proclaiming the
Kingdom of God, He created enemies for Himself. We read how “the chief
priests and the scribes, with the support of the leading citizens, tried to do
away with him.” Hence, today’s purification of the temple symbolizes that
Christ is going to purify us and sanctify us by His own death and blood.
We are called to be like the people who “as a whole hung on his words”.
This is also the prayer of the psalmist, “I rejoiced to do you will … your
statutes are my counselors … the law from your mouth means more to me than
silver and gold…” Yes, let us take the scroll and eat it, tasting both
what is sweet and sour.
By so
doing, we fulfill the prophecy of Malachi. By first purifying ourselves,
the whole Church as the Temple of God is purified. Through the Church as
the sacrament of Christ and the Temple of God, we seek to sanctify the world so
that the whole of God’s creation can become truly His and where He is
proclaimed Lord and God to all. In this way, the kingdom of God is
established and restored. Yes, like St John, we are commanded, “to
prophesy again, this time about many different nations and countries and
languages and emperors.” Eventually, the whole of creation is purified,
filled with God’s Spirit so that God can be all in all.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights
Reserved
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