💖 HOMILY - NOVEMBER 18 💖

First Reading - Apocalypse 10:8-11 

Gospel - Luke 19:45-48

Today’s Gospel gives us the dramatic account of Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple in Jerusalem. He drove out its merchants and money-changers with moral indignation at the unjust commercialization of God’s House of Prayer and the exploitation of the poor pilgrims in the name of religion. The merchants charged exorbitant prices for the animals to be sacrificed, and the moneychangers charged unjust commissions for the required exchange of pagan coins for Temple coins. The Temple Jesus cleansed was the Temple in Jerusalem, originally built by Solomon in 966 BC, rebuilt by Zerubbabel in 515 BC after the Babylonians had destroyed it, and in Jesus’ day was still being renovated, a work begun by King Herod the Great in 20 BC. The abuses which infuriated Jesus were: 1) the conversion of a place of prayer into a noisy marketplace, and 2), the unjust business practices of animal merchants and moneychangers, encouraged by the Temple authorities. Hence, Jesus made a whip of cords and drove away the animals, the dealers and the moneychangers, quoting the prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace".

Dear friends, we need to avoid the business mentality of loss and profit in Divine worship. Our relationship with God must be that of a child to his parent, with no thought of loss or gain, but only of mutual love, respect and the common good. 

Secondly, we need to remember that we are the temples of the Holy Spirit. Hence, we have no right to desecrate God’s temple by acts of impurity, injustice, pride, hatred or jealousy. 

We need to love our parish Church and use it. Our Church is the place where we come together as a community to praise and worship God, to thank Him for His blessings, to ask pardon and forgiveness for our sins, and to receive His offered healing and nourishment. Let us make our Church an even more holy place by adding our prayers and songs to community worship and by offering our time and talents in the various ministries of our parish.