THIRD SUNDA OF LENT
This weekend we celebrate the third Sunday of Lent and we are almost at the 12 month point since the restrictions around COVID19 began here in NI. I get the feeling that we are coming out the other side with the slow return of all the things we value. When all this started we really did not know what was going on and all of had to make the best of what has happened. Now as we begin our slow return to normal we are asked to hold firm and stay with the changes that have taken place as we do that we are also asked to be a friend to those around us who might be in any difficulty especially when life is not so good during and after the pandemic.
This Sunday’s gospel shows us that Jesus was really tuned in to our human nature: He knew what was going on in the hearts of those around him. He knew what they thought. He saw what they did to the Temple. The Temple was supposed to be a place of celebration celebrating the spiritual presence of God in the world. The reading tells us that the people changed the Temple into a marketplace when it should have been a place of spiritual encounter.
For many in our modern world the day of the Lord Sunday has been replaced with so many secular things taking the place of God religion and faith. Jesus knew that people would see the signs that he worked, the miracles he performed, but the same people would refuse to see the messages behind the signs and the miracles that were there if front of them in plain sight. Instead they would see him as a wonder worker, a superman, a good show and Jesus wasn’t about any of that. Many people have left the faith behind but in similar fashion many are returning again. It is often said that in order to really appreciate something we have to leave it behind and then go back to it again later on when we understand the thing we have left behind was a better deal than the place we went to.The portrait of Jesus in today’s Gospel is a world away from the storybook caricature of Jesus, the meek and mild figure. An equal caricature is to use this passage to make Jesus into a godfather of violence, a revolutionary willing to support annihilation for the sake of the cause and that was not the case. Jesus did use force in the Temple; he was certainly aggressive. But he did not use force because he was not a political leader. Nor did he use aggression to gain power for himself because his kingdom could not be established by violence.
Our faith is not about a good show instead it is about our relationship with God and how we bring the love of God to those around us. Jesus shows us what real love is as he went on to die on the cross for us on Good Friday. Our dying to ourselves during Lent is an identification with the power of Christ crucified. Our calling, then, is to be strong in faith, not weak. God gives us signs both people and places as anchors of faith even during this time of pandemic. We must trust the Lord to cut us free from everything that stops us going to him and allow him to guide us through the rough currents of life especially the ones we are going through these days. So we go forward with hope and certainty towards Easter as we do that we remember that our god is a god who is with us in good and bad times and he won’t let us down.
Fullerton T 