Zeal for my grass will consume me

On this third Sunday of Lent we heard the Gospel from St. John when Jesus cleaned house in the Temple.  He chased them all out, with a whip made of cords.  Out went the animals, the money changers, the tables and anything else that got in His way.  We actually got to hear about the anger of Jesus, righteous though it was!  You know many of us pay little to no attention to what is going on here.  Even though it was the Holy Temple of the Lord, dedicated to prayer and worship, foolish human weakness had turned it into a place of extortion and greed and kickbacks and worse.  Jesus simply wanted to restore the Temple to place that gave due and proper worship to God the Father.  And He was none too happy either how the religious leaders were treating the non-Jews, the Gentiles by making their "court" of worship the place of all the foolishness.  Jesus' followers remembered the Scripture, zeal for your house will consume me.

Jesus went on to tell those who would listen that even if the Temple be destroyed, in three days He would raise it up.  Three days?  Indeed, for Jesus is speaking of His body and the Resurrection.  His enemies thought Jesus defeated on the Cross but on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead.

For us we need to remember that we too are called in Scripture temples; we are temples of the Holy Spirit.  Others have reminded us that we too are just like tabernacles because when we receive the Body of Christ in Holy Communion, we have within our body the Body of Christ.  Perhaps like the Temple, sometimes our temples need to be cleaned out.  Sometimes we need to have Jesus remind us that if we get too consumed with stuff, too consumed with sin and the effects of sin, we need to turn to Him and ask Him to drive it out.  Like Pope Francis reminded us today, the whip that Jesus uses on us is not a bunch of cords, it's his mercy and love and forgiveness.  Jesus wants our bodily temples free of sin and ready to worthily receive Him so He may be a remedy for eternal life.

This afternoon, long after my morning of assisting two Masses, I jumped on my big orange tractor and begin another season of grass cutting.  For me and the big orange mower this is grass cutting season #20.  Back in the day friends and neighbors would probably tell me zeal for your grass consumes you.  Yep, I was a grass cutting fool.  Of course these were long before life as a Permanent Deacon.  While there is nothing wrong at all in cutting the grass, working in the yard, taking care of the house, God kept calling me to serve, a service that reaches others through the ministry of the diaconate.  I still have to live up to my responsibilities; husband, father, grandfather, banker, neighbor, grass cutter, it is ministry and service that consumes me.  It's a good example here that I am making because as service to God and the Church, either at the altar, in ministry, at the prison, wherever called it is up to us to answer and to work that call into our ever busy lives.  But just as Jesus cleaned out that temple, when you hear and answer the call to serve Him by serving one another, Jesus will clear out our temples too, and there will always be room to be consumed!