Friday 20 November 2020

Today is Friday the 20 November, in the 33rd week of Ordinary Time.

One Hope Project sings, ‘Where the Lord Dwells’.  As you begin to pray today, become aware of God’s presence with you now…

Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Luke.

Luke 19:45-48

Then he entered the temple & began to drive out those who were selling things there; & 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, & 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.

In John’s Gospel this incident comes at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. In Mark and Matthew, Jesus is somewhat violent as he overturns the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those selling doves. In Luke’s account, Jesus doesn’t do these things as he cleanses the temple. Rather than focus on the differences, perhaps we might reflect on why this incident occurs in all four gospels? What is it that causes Jesus to react this way?

Although he is speaking about the corruption of a physical place, the temple, he is also speaking about the corruption of spirits and the ways in which the minds and hearts of the people have started to serve a different god: the god of money and greed. The theft that was occurring was the robbery of the spirit.

Though they wanted to, the authorities could not arrest Jesus. The crowd hang on his every word. Yet every time he speaks, he takes his life into his hands. Listen to the reading again.

Ask the Lord for the courage you need never to be ashamed to show who you are and whom you serve.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.