REFLECTION HOMILY FOR THE 3RD SUNDAY OF LENT YEAR B: JESUS, CLEANSE MY SOUL.

REFLECTION HOMILY FOR THE 3RD SUNDAY OF LENT YEAR B: JESUS, CLEANSE MY SOUL.

1. Main ideas of today’s liturgy

Our Lenten celebration cannot be reduced to mere devotional practices. Rather, we have to identify our will with God’s. This is what our Lenten practices should lead us to. The filial love and fidelity with which Jesus Christ fulfilled the will of the Father, up to the real sacrifice of his life, his attitude of unconditional obedience, constitute the impressive example of life which we Christians must imitate as disciples of Jesus.

• In the 1st reading (Ex 20:1-17), God chose Israel and established with her a covenant of love and salvation. The Mosaic Law and the Ten Commandments are not to be considered only as a body of rules and prohibitions, but rather as manifestation of God the Father’s love who wishes to dignify the life of his children.
• This law is perfect and refreshing to the soul (Resp. Psalm). It teaches the ignorant, gives joy to one’s heart, gives light to his life for God’s commands are true and entirely just.
• In the 2nd reading, St. Paul preaches the Crucified Christ, scandal to all men, but wisdom of God to those who believe in him. Jesus did not come to erase the law of Moses but rather came to bring it to perfection through love.
• This perfection brought about by Jesus was fulfilled in his Passion, Death and Resurrection: “Destroy this temple and I in three days I will raise it up….But he was speaking about the temple of his body,” Jesus said in today’s Gospel, on the cleansing of the temple. By saying this as he drove away the merchants from the Temple, out of zeal and love for God’s house, he was referring to his Paschal Mystery (= His Passion, Death and Resurrection) which is the apex and fulfillment of God’s love for us and for our salvation.

2. Jesus, the definitive temple and prophet.

Did Jesus act out of violence? No. When Jesus expelled the animal dealers and moneychangers out of the Temple of Jerusalem, he was carrying out a typical prophetic action. The prophets often reported abuse in God’s name and did such with symbolic gestures. In Jesus’ case, He was implying that He is the Messiah foretold by the prophets, thus, the definitive Prophet.

• The Temple of Jerusalem was the place God selected during the Old Covenant to express his presence to Israel in a special way. However, it was just an imperfect representation.
• When the Word of God became man, God made his full presence here on earth in Jesus. He is God’s definitive Temple on earth. This is why Jesus identified the Temple with His own Body.
• As Pope Benedict said:
  • ” With the Pasch of Jesus a new form of worship begins, the cult of love, and a new temple which is he himself, the Risen Christ, through whom every believer can worship God “in spirit and truth” (Jn 4:23).” Angelus Address, 11 March 2021

3. Allow Jesus to cleanse our soul, his temple.

Through Baptism, we have become temples of God due to the inhabitation or indwelling of the Trinity in our soul in grace. As such, we have become living stones of the spiritual Temple of God.

During this Lenten Season, especially today, we could ask ourselves: Is there anything in the temple of our soul that needs to be cleansed and driven out? Does the Lord feel at home and at ease in our heart, in our soul, in our life? Pope Francis poses the following questions:

“Do we allow Him to “cleanse” our hearts and to drive out the idols, those attitudes of cupidity, jealousy, worldliness, envy, hatred, those habits of gossiping and tearing down others. Do I allow Him to cleanse all the behaviors that are against God, against our neighbour, and against ourselves, as we heard today in the first Reading? Each one can answer for himself, in the silence of his heart:” Angelus Address, March 7, 2015

Let us ask God, through the intercession of Mother Mary and St. Joseph, to cleanse the temple of our soul and expel that which needs to be driven out: our pride, envy, greed, lust, hatred, laziness…: our sins, so that we may be able to rediscover the joy and beauty of living in union with God, and be his living presence among the people around us.

Happy Sunday to everyone. Stay safe and God bless! Fr. Rolly Arjonillo.

SEE AS WELL:
3RD SUNDAY OF LENT YEAR B MASS PRAYERS AND READINGS HERE.

FOR THE
REFLECTION HOMILY ON THE 3rd SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT YEAR B,
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