Third Sunday of Lent 15 March 2009

When I was a child going to Mass with my parents and family members most churches looked different from how they are today. In the first place there were ‘Altar Rails’ at which people knelt to receive Our Lord in Holy Communion. These rails with gates in the centre marked off the Sanctuary area in which were the Tabernacle and Altar. Only the priest and altar boys (no girls in those days) were allowed to enter. The priest offered Mass in Latin with his back to the people and many people during Mass said the Rosary and some moved about following the Way of the Cross. To receive Holy Communion you had to fast from all food and take nothing to drink from the previous midnight. Even the vestments looked different.

But that was a long time ago – even some as old as I am never celebrated Mass in Latin with my back to the congregation. English or Gaelic were the languages I used when first ordained a priest. But the aspect that ties in with today’s readings, especially the Gospel, is how the church building is a sacred place in the sense that it is a place apart. It is a place that must be kept worthy of God – clean, beautiful and quiet with all our behaviour in church worthy of God. The word ‘Church’ comes from a Greek word ‘Kyriakon’ which is “the Lord’s [place]”.

Great work is done here at St Joseph’s and has been over the years to keep our Church building worthy of God. The reverence we show on entering the church building indicates how special a place it is. Some days ago our Catechumens spent a few hours examining all that happens at Sunday Mass here at St Joseph’s. The taking of the holy water as a sign of baptism is a particularly significant gesture as we assemble for worship. We enter and reverence Jesus present in each other and already in the Tabernacle in the Blessed Sacrament. When I was a child people would genuflect and kneel on the ground before moving into the seat they were going to occupy for Mass as a sign of humility and penance. The same reverence and humility are still part of our coming together especially during Lent as the season of penance.

Now to this startling picture of Jesus in the Gospel today where He is in the Temple with a whip driving out the traders as well as their cattle and sheep, scattering the money changers’ coins and knocking their tables over. The pigeon sellers were the only ways to get off a bit more lightly. They were told to get out and stop turning the place into a market! Jesus went a bit easier on the pigeon sellers because they were there for the poor people who could not afford to buy a beast or animal for the Temple sacrifice to God. Well, you can imagine how popular this made Jesus! The traders must have been furious that this layman (Jesus) dared to spoil their trade. This is hardly the Jesus of some of the statues or pictures of Him that we may have seen.

Why did He do this? Just before this incident Jesus had replaced water with wine at Cana. Now he replaces the Temple with Himself. He can now say with truth, ‘Destroy this sanctuary and in three days I will raise it up’. Eventually the Temple would be destroyed. When people thought that Jesus had been finally destroyed on the Cross, he rose from the dead on Easter morning. We believe that when we come into the church we meet Jesus who will never leave us orphans and who lives in us through the Holy Spirit. YOU ARE A TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. That is your dignity and your greatest boast.

Aidan Troy, C.P. (Aodhán Ó Troighthigh, C.P.)