FOR the Feast of the Dedication of the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome, the mother church of all Roman Catholic churches, on November 9, we are assured of God’s presence in our midst, gladdening us and giving us strength (Psalm 46:2–3, 5–6, 8–9). Like Jesus, zeal for God’s house should be consuming us (John 2:13–22).
The Lord of Hosts is with us
PSALM 46 is a psalm of trust in God, whose presence in the city has saved it from its enemies. The opening words compare God to a citadel that is inaccessible to attackers and that provides protection and strength to all those in it. God is “an ever-present help” in times of distress and danger. This is why God’s people do not fear, even if the earth shudders and the mountains—symbols of stability and strength—collapse into the depths of the sea. God’s strength is different and never fails, and is not subject to any stronger force. We have nothing to fear if God is with us and is our strength.
A symbol of God’s presence in the midst of the people is the life-giving river, whose streams gladden the city of God. Referred to is the aqueduct from the Gihon spring to the pool of Siloam inside the defenses of Jerusalem (2 Kings 20:20), enabling the city to withstand a siege. Indeed, the holy dwelling of the Most High shall not be disturbed, and when dawn comes with its light finally conquering darkness, it would be clear to all that God protected them. God, the Lord of Hosts, the victorious leader against all enemies and forces of darkness, the God of Jacob, is our stronghold; He is with us. We can see the astounding things He has brought about on earth. The marvels of God fill us with gratitude and give us confidence and strength.
The Father’s house a marketplace?
THE Gospel story took place in the temple of Jerusalem, which Jesus calls “my Father’s house.” That is the point of conflict: Jesus’s assertion of authority in His Father’s house and His evaluation of the activities there. Using a whip, He drove out of the temple those selling cattle, sheep and doves, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers and spilled their coins. “Take these things out of here!” Jesus said. “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!”
Temple worship traffics in animals, monetary donations and taxes. Exchange is the name of worship: worshippers give God sacrificial animals and money, and God gives the worshippers blessings and help in their endeavors. This is the mentality and manner of the marketplace: deal-making or quid pro quo (this for that). But God does not exchange favors for sacrificial animals and coins; His free gift of love and life is not for sale or bargain. So, what may be needed in the temple is, in reality, out of place in the Father’s house.
Zeal for God’s house
IN fact, it is zeal for His Father’s house that drove Jesus to action against the merchants who are doing business in the temple grounds. Jesus is acting out His prophetic message that, now with Him, the time of fulfillment has arrived, which, according to the prophet Zechariah (14:21), would mean that there is no more need for merchants in the house of the Lord. The spiritual nature of the relationship between God and the worshippers is to be emphasized, so that true worshippers “will worship the Father in spirit and truth…. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23–24).
Jesus is actually replacing the temple, not merely cleansing it. He is the fullness of grace and truth from whom all receive, the Son who reveals the Father (John 1:14, 16, 18). Jesus’s presence makes the Father accessible and can now be immediately worshipped in Him and through Him. The greatest sacrifice to the Father, indeed, is the very sign that Jesus offers to the Jews who are asking Him for a sign to legitimize His actions and claim as the Messiah: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” His challengers naturally misunderstand the meaning of His words. In referring to Himself as the temple, Jesus is proclaiming that God’s presence in our midst is now incarnated in and through Him, and that, in His death and resurrection, He is definitively replacing the temple and its sacrifice.
Alálaong bagá, Jesus is now God’s dwelling place in our midst, the temple where we encounter God and come into communion with Him. It is only with, through and in Jesus that we can celebrate the sacrifice worthy of God in spirit and truth. And it is now the whole Christ, head and body, that serves as the sign of God’s saving love in history. We, the believers, one with Jesus, are God’s temple in this world. Every physical edifice or church, from the splendid Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran to our humble barangay bisita, becomes a sacred site because of God’s presence in the community of faith that celebrates in it Christ’s eternal sacrifice.
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