3rd Sunday of Lent, Year B

"Stop turning my Father's house into a marketplace!"
Lectionary Readings for the 3rd Sunday of Lent, Year B

In the gospel readings, we see Jesus getting angry with those who
are using the Temple for business activities. His anger is rooted
in the love He has for the Father's temple as the dwelling place
of God's Spirit. As the people questioned His authority, He then
relates it to the coming event of the destruction of His own body,
which the Spirit will raise up in three days. The people misunderstood
what He meant, because they were thinking in terms of the Temple in
the material world, rather than that of the temple of Jesus' body.

This gospel reading is a reminder for all of us to respect the
Temple of the Lord, His Church. Often, especially those of us who
are so familiar with the parish, we are frequently tempted to speak
and socialize with others who are also active in the parish. We
forget that the parish is a place of prayer and that the Spirit
of God leads all those inside the Church to prayer. When we engage
so much in speaking about secular matters in the parish when people
are praying, in a way, we turn the Church into a "marketplace" where
instead of the spirit of prayer consuming us, it is the spirit of
mammon leading us.

Let us then always remember to respect our parish as the house
where the Lord God lives. Probably, the best way to remind ourselves
is to see the Eucharist as one in which we are led to become more
the Temples of God's Spirit. When we realize how we are made the
Temple of God's Spirit through receiving the Eucharist in the Church,
then we shall truly the parish which houses the body and blood
of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we always invoke the Lord God in
His Temple, His Spirit comes to dwell in us and leads us more and
more into a spirit of prayer: one that reminds us that Christ's
body contains the Spirit of Life - a Spirit which calls us to
the service of respect and praise.