Cleansing and renewal of life - Giving up our wrong ways and distorted visions! 3rd Sunday of lent- March- 15
There is one very dear and darling lady in our parish, who has an amazing sense of humor for her age. The other day she came up to me after mass and said, “Father Joy, I am giving you up for Lent.” I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. “Why” I asked. “Because” She said “I give up everyone and everything I love and the best in my life”. Humor aside, is it not true that for many people Lent is about “giving up” something in penance? We give up, meat on Fridays, drinks or smoking or some food or spending less money on food and clothing and travel, something similar to that. And tragically, sometimes Lent remains at that level. Surely there is more to Lent than acts of penance. Today’s readings take us to the depths of the spirituality of Lent. The depths of the spirituality of Lent are that we need cleansing and renewal of our lives. Just imagine life without washing and cleaning or taking bath! It smells and stings. People hate this situation.
How do we need to renew and cleanse our life? There are three ways of cleansing and renewing:
1. Look at the first reading taken from the book of Exodus. We are called to examine our lives based on the Ten Commandments. A cleansing needs to be done. When God had freed the Chosen People, the descendants of Abraham, from the slavery of Egypt, he led them to Mount Sinai. There, amidst manifestations of his presence, he made a Covenant or pact with the Israelites through which he promised to make them his own people, to lead them into the Promised Land, and to protect them from their enemies there. The Israelites, on their part, were to reverence him and him only as their Lord, and they were to obey the moral and cultic laws which he laid down for them. The Ten Commandments which we have just read are the essence of the moral obligations imposed on the Israelites. These commandments governed their duties to God and to their neighbor. It is God him-self, the master of the universe ("all the earth is mine" Ex. 19: 5) who imposes these laws ("thou shall, thou shall not") on the Israelites. The commandments governing their relations with their neighbors are derived from the "natural law" and are to be found in all the pre-Mosaic social laws, but God makes them part of his Covenant with Israel. They must obey them if they accept him as their God and their protector.
2. Second principle is to accept Jesus as the Messiah. In the second reading, St. Paul says that Jesus’ death on the cross is the a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. The Jews who did not accept Christ as their promised Messiah, refused because he did not fit the pre-conceived ideas they had formed of the Messiah. The Messiah they were looking for was to be a political leader, a national liberator who would not only rid Palestine of the hated Romans but set it over all the pagan nations. God, they thought, would help him to do this, by giving him the power to work some spectacular miracles or signs. The Greeks or Gentiles on the other hand looked to philosophy or human "wisdom" for the solution of man's problems. Accepting Jesus as the wisdom from God and the liberator giving life to people. That cleanses our thought and renews our attitude.
3. In the gospel, we see Jesus cleansing the temple and chasing the money lenders and business men. Because it was against the nature of the temple. He calls the temple his Father's house, signifying a special relationship with God. The temple should be a place of worship, not a market-place during the pass over feast. The pass over feast which commemorated the liberation of the Jews from the slavery of Egypt. The feast got its name from the fact of the avenging angel who struck down the first-born in every Egyptian house, but passed over the homes of the Israelites whose door-posts were stained with the blood of the lamb sacrificed that evening. During this festival, oxen, sheep and pigeons were necessary for the sacrifices which pilgrims would offer in Jerusalem. It would have been very difficult if each pilgrim had to bring his own beasts or birds. But it was an abuse to have these for sale in the holy of holies of the temple. Jesus also makes a prediction of his death and resurrection. My dear friends, the depth of Lenten spirituality is cleansing and renewing our lives by keeping the commandments that speak about my relationship with god and with one another, by accepting the fact that Jesus is the liberator who can frees us from our anxiety, struggles and going through the passage of death to new life by dying to our own selfishness. The participation in the Eucharist will give us the courage and strength to look into our lives to see where I need cleansing and renewal. Amen
