Zeal for your house will consume me.
Follow this link to today’s readings.
Today’s first reading brings us to the establishment of God’s Laws – the Ten Commandments. God begins the process of grooming His “chosen people” from their savage, sinful, untamed lifestyle to bring them closer to Himself. He had to, at the very least, lay down the BASICS of holy living. It’s amazing how poignant these basic laws still speak to us, even today in our “high society” world.
These “rules” are so much more than simple black and white sketches of holiness. We are called to DIVE into them, Sacramentally. Today’s second reading and psalm reminds us that God’s words lead us to everlasting life, and that His foolishness is wiser than human wisdom.
Rules can so easily be abused, as we see in today’s Gospel. We read today from John where Jesus calls out the hypocrisy of the merchants at the temple. Turning over the tables, spilling the coins, driving them away, Jesus had simply had enough. He could not stand to see His Father’s house brought to such deceit. The letter of the law was all that remained… the spirit stripped from the sacrifice. Someone who previously had been so vague about His final purpose was finally driven to the point of announcing it with clarity… “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”… a clarity that no one could understand through their blindness.
Christ had finally been CONSUMED WITH ZEAL… to the point where recovery was no longer an option. There was no turning back now.
Disclaimer: This post was finished early and scheduled to automatically post on Sunday. The third commandment was not broken in the creation of this edition of Splendid Sundays =D.