20201120 CHALLENGE TO THE LEADERSHIP OF ISRAEL
20 November, 2020, Friday, 33rd Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour: Green.
First reading |
Apocalypse 10:8-11 © |
I was told to swallow the scroll, and to prophesy
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.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 118(119):14,24,72,103,111,131 © |
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.
Gospel Acclamation | cf.2Tim1:10 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Our Saviour Jesus Christ abolished death
and he has proclaimed life through the Good News.
Alleluia!
Or: | Jn10:27 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice,
says the Lord,
I know them and they follow me.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 19:45-48 © |
You have turned God's house into a robbers' den
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.
CHALLENGE TO THE LEADERSHIP OF ISRAEL
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [REV 10:8-11; LUKE 19:45-48 ]
It is never easy to be a prophet, a true prophet of God. This is because, as the Book of Revelation tells us, whilst the call to be God’s prophet is a great honor and therefore sweet are His words to us, yet it would turn sour the moment we try to proclaim God’s words to people who reject Him. Those who hear the Word of God, instead of welcoming it, feel that their freedom is taken away. John himself clearly understood the trials of a prophet since he suffered much testifying to the Lord and preaching the Word of God. (cf Rev 1:9)
This was precisely the case of our Lord in the gospel. Jesus spoke the truth about the future destiny of Jerusalem if they did not repent. “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side.” (Lk 19:42f) And Jesus, like all the other prophets, said such unpleasant news with love and compassion for the people. He warned them that God was withdrawing from the Temple just as what Ezekiel and Jeremiah prophesied before Him to the people of Israel before their exile. (cf Ez 10, Jer 26:1-24)
Upon entering Jerusalem, He went to the heart of the crisis, which is the crisis of moral and religious leadership. This is symbolized by the cleansing of the Temple. For St Luke, it was not the selling of the things in the temple per se. That was why he did not describe the violent upsetting of the merchants’ tables. It was more a reaction to the prophetic teaching of our Lord. The authorities were not happy with Jesus because He challenged their authority as religious leaders and His teachings also caused them to lose credibility and control. By cleansing the Temple, Jesus was raising the issue of true leadership. Of course, it was particularly because “the people as a whole hung on his words” that made them find a way to get rid of Him. Jesus not only exposed the hypocrisy of the leaders but He also reprimanded the nation for rejecting the visitation of God.
But there was also another issue that irked the Jewish religious leaders, which was His implicit claim of messianic and prophetic authority. The cleansing of the Temple brought out His prophetic claim because it is linked to the prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah. Jesus’ reproach of the religious leaders alluded to what Isaiah said about “my house will be a house of prayer” (cf Isa 56:7) and Jeremiah who censured the religious leaders saying, “you have turned it into a robbers’ den.” (cf Jer 7:11) The religious leaders were condemned for their hypocrisy and injustice as they worshipped in the Temple both in Jeremiah’s and Jesus’ days. But because this prophetic act of cleansing the Temple was linked to Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem when He was acclaimed King by the crowd, which He did not reject. “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” These words could imply that He accepted the confession that He was the Son of David, the Messiah to come.
Of course, such a prophetic and messianic claim would invite persecution from the religious leaders. If they did not tolerate the prophets in the past, not even John the Baptist, much less would they tolerate a prophet who claimed to be the Messiah. It was a direct affront to their authority. Such an action of course only hardened the resentment and hostility of the Jewish authorities against Jesus. Hence, the plot to kill Jesus became more determined. This was made worse because Jesus appeared at the Temple daily and He took the final battle with the Jewish leaders to the heart of Jerusalem. However, in the case of Jeremiah, his life was spared, but not for our Lord. He was eventually put to death. But His death was also the cause of the New Temple.
The proof or demonstration of Jesus’ claim to prophetic and messianic authority is His passion, death and resurrection. St John gave the answer to the question of the Jews, “‘What sign can you show us for doing this?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.” (Jn 2:18-22) Indeed, it is the cross and the resurrection that confirms Jesus’ authority as the Messiah and the one who ushers the true worship of God. This is because by His death, He tore down the veil of the Temple that divided man and God. “It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’ Having said this, he breathed his last.” (Lk 23:44-46)
Pope Benedict writes: “The rejection and crucifixion of Jesus means the end of this Temple. The era of the Temple is over. A new worship is being introduced, in a Temple not built by human hands. This Temple is his body, the Risen One, who gathers the peoples and unites them in the sacrament of his body and blood. He himself is the new Temple of humanity. The crucifixion of Jesus is at the same time the destruction of the old Temple. With his Resurrection, a new way of worshiping God begins, no long on this or that mountain, but ‘in spirit and truth’.” (Jesus of Nazareth, vol. II, 21-22).
But it was only because the Temple was destroyed that a new form of worship took place. This was what the Lord said to the Samaritan woman. “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.” (Jn 4:21-23) Indeed, through Christ, we have direct access to the Father in the one Spirit. (Eph 2:18) This was how the early Christians viewed the death and resurrection of our Lord too, even before the actual destruction of the Temple. Even as they continued to worship in the Temple before they were expelled, the early Christians saw the end of the Jewish worship. In Christ’s sacrificial death, all sins have been taken away.
Today, in the light of these prophetic words from both scripture readings on the impending judgment of God on the world, what would be our response? Do we continue to live in self-denial that the world is going the right way, that secularism is good for humanity, that moral relativism promotes unity and good values in life, and that materialism ensures a happy people? We know that the writing is on the wall. We pretend that the world is going to advance from strength to strength. If only we see like our Lord, the disasters ahead of us; moral depravity, selfishness, self-centeredness and ecological destruction, nuclear wars bringing about tremendous sufferings to humanity, then perhaps, we will do something. Jesus is asking us to take His warning seriously. He wants us to live in truth and love.
Like the people, we need to hang on to His words. We are privileged to know that Jesus is our Lord because we have the benefit from hindsight and the testimonies of billions of Christians who have encountered the Risen Lord in their lives. Like Jesus, we too must make our journey to Jerusalem, share in His paschal mystery, His passion, death and resurrection if we want to share in His glory. We are accountable to the Word of God entrusted to us. Let us make time to taste the Word of God and receive the sweetness so that it will give us the courage when we meet sorrows and trials in life. Yes, with the psalmist, we say, “Your promise is sweet to my taste, O Lord.” We cling on to the promises of our Lord that those who follow Him will have eternal life. (cf Mt 19:29)
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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