“HONEY FROM THE ROCK”
Daily Reflections
Thursday, 9th November 2017.
Thirty First Week in Ordinary Time
Feast of Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
Ez 47:1-2, 8-9, 12;
Ps 45:2-3, 5-6, 8-9;
1Cor 3: 9-11, 16-17;
Jn 2:13-22
THE TEMPLE OF GOD!
Around 592 years before the coming of Christ, Ezekiel encountered God Who used him as an instrument, first, to prepare the sinful people for disaster, and later, to predict the reconstruction of the Jerusalem Temple. Shortly after 535 B.C., began the reconstruction of the temple, under Zerubbabel who returned from the Babylonian captivity along with more than 42,000 Jews. The work was completed by 518 B.C.
This second temple was rebuilt on a grand scale by Herod the Great who would have murdered Jesus, if the Holy Family had not escaped into Egypt. This was the temple that the Jews had turned into a market-place and which cried for cleansing at the hands of Jesus. He scattered the coins, overthrew the tables, drove out the cattle and sheep, saying: “… stop turning My Father’s house into a market.”These words of Jesus naturally provoked temple authorities. Further, the reply of Jesus to their demand for a sign to justify His action was beyond their grasping capacity. Jesus was speaking of the sanctuary which was His Body, not made of stones, while they were arguing about the sanctuary rebuilt by Herod.
Of this new Temple of the New Testament, St Paul says in today’s reading: “Didn’t you realize that you were God’s temple and that the Spirit of God was living among you?” The mystical Body of Christ (i.e. the Church) was born when the physical Body of Christ died on Calvary and the veil of the temple was rent asunder from top to bottom (Cfr. Mt 27: 50-51).
Jesus is telling us today, that we too are a temple of the Holy Spirit, of God. Being created in the image of God, we are a blessed temple. As a conscious being we are able and called and invited to respond to the indwelling of God, to being a temple in a personal, unique and intimate way. As we celebrate today, the dedication of the Lateran Basilica, the mother of all the Catholic churches throughout the world, let us cultivate anew the sense of unity and solidarity that should characterize us as members of the mystical Christ.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, as you cleansed the temple, cleanse me, purify me, polish me, refine me, make me worthy of You. Jesus, I trust in You. Amen.
Copyright ©2013-2017 ©JoyCat, Joy of the Catholic Life: see www.joy-cat.blogspot.com.
