Homilies
Third Sunday of Lent
March 19, 2006
(For the Homilies Archive, click here.)
What is God Saying in the Readings?
A common thread runs through today’s readings for the Mass for the Third Sunday of Lent. We might call it “the wisdom and power of God.”
In the first reading God speaks to Moses atop the thundering Mount Sinai. This is the impressive moment when God gives the ten commandments to Moses and the chosen people. Juxtaposed to this powerful scene are words of Saint Paul in the Epistle wherein he reminds us that the wisdom and power of God is now found in the crucified Christ. And then in the Gospel, we hear the exciting tale of Jesus assuming authority in the Temple in order to violently expel the money changers.
And the readings show an even stronger connection when we find that the money changers protest not in the least to the violent action of Jesus. Rather, they demand that Christ give them more signs of his power. Together with this, we hear that others come to believe in Jesus, but only once that they themselves have seen clear signs of his power.
Jesus, however, will not entrust himself to these men, for their belief in him is based solely on the powerful signs he has worked. No, Jesus will not do so because he knows what men are like. He knows their fallen nature and that men are forever hungry for power. In fact, it is for this very reason that Jesus himself is now walking the earth. He is here to heal men of this very disease. But the power–hungry money changers are not interested in being healed. No, in their arrogance they demand that Jesus give them a sign of his power and authority. But they are not quite satisfied with the answer that Jesus gives when he says: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
But it’s not as if the money changers find this answer ridiculous. Jesus actually piques their interest with his answer. In fact, they are actually egging Jesus on when they rhetorically respond: “This temple has been under construction for forty–six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” In their thirst for power, they would love to see such a deed. And they would love to be able to harness such a power—for their own desires. But in a very short time, the true disciples of Jesus will come to see the hidden truth found in the answer that Jesus gives. We know now that what Jesus is really saying is this: humiliate and murder me and in three days I will be risen in my glorified body.
While this is the obvious meaning to us, the money changers, in their arrogance, cannot see the obvious. No. The amazing truth of this answer does not even begin to register in their petty minds. They are demanding a sign of power from this apparently very powerful man. The destruction, therefore, of which Jesus is speaking must be the destruction of the huge stone temple and not his own body. For a man as powerful as Jesus could not be speaking of the destruction of his own body. Powerful people are not destroyed. No, from the money changers point of view, powerful people destroy—they don’t give themselves up to be destroyed. What is more, a man would be insane to do such a thing. What could he possibly accomplish? Does he foolishly think that it will accomplish anything? What? Open the gates of heaven to sinners? Ridiculous!
Yes, the conflict in the Temple is indeed an exciting one, and in the Epistle today we find that Saint Paul explains the source of this conflict. He says: “Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”
And just prior to this Saint Paul says: “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will thwart.’ Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” (1 Cor. 1:18–20)
Here in a few words, Saint Paul summarizes the whole scandal of the cross. For, on the Cross is the Almighty God. The God of Abraham and the God of Moses. The God who, in the Old Testament, would time and again manifest his power and authority in order to convince the Jews that he is indeed the one true God. Now this very same God has taken on the lowly form of a man, and now he hangs from a tree, full of wounds and dripping with blood.
Where now is the power? Where now is the wisdom?
What is the Message in the Readings?
The message Christ is giving us in these readings is difficult to completely understand, even for us who believe. Yet much is obvious.
For we know that God is all–powerful and all–loving. This we experience each day of our lives: in nature, in our friends and family, at Mass, and in the Blessed Sacrament.
And we know from salvation history that God was preparing the way for his visit to earth in the person of Jesus, to walk with us for a while and to conquer sin. The Old Testament, we might say, is ordered to the New. God’s action on the Cross, therefore, is somehow a fulfillment. Yes. The bleeding Christ on the Cross is actually a deeper manifestation of God’s power and authority.
And what can be said most truly about Christ hanging from the Cross is that it is the ultimate act of love. As Jesus himself tells us: “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (Jn. 15:13)
So, at least part of the message for today’s readings is this: True power is love, and true love is sacrificial.
But another more sober part of the message is tied up in the fact that this particular sign—this sign of the Cross—is a stumbling block, for both the Jews and for us. For, like the Jews, we are given the grace to see the meaning of the sign. And, as with the Jews, this sign is impossible for us to ignore. Having seen it, we have only two options: to follow Jesus or to murder him.
No, we cannot simply ignore Jesus and get on with our lives. There is too much power and wisdom packed into this sign. Once Jesus meets us in the depths of our hearts and presents us with the truth (and, therefore, with an insight into the ugliness of our self–centered ways), we are forced to make a decision. Either we welcome Jesus into our hearts and receive his healing power, or we harden our hearts in an effort to cut off the truth that lies within.
Now we all know men who have chosen option number two. We describe them with words like cold, ugly, empty, unhappy, and heartless. “They are in fact images of hell… taking no pleasure in anything any more, liking nothing and no one, and liked by no one. Being robbed of any capacity for loving and excluded from the sphere in which loving is possible—absolute emptiness, in which a person exists in contradiction to his own nature, and his life is totally ruined.” (God and the World, Cardinal Ratzinger)
Yes, this sign of the Cross—this invitation of Christ—has become a horrible stumbling block to many a man.
But I must ask myself, in what ways I myself am imitating these men who have stumbled so badly? What habits do I have that makes me become more like them each day? And what can I do to change?
What is my Response to the Readings?
Lord, you have said, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt. 18:3) I confess that I have indeed hardened my heart. It is not the same joyful heart I had as a child.
With the Psalmist, therefore, I pray thee:
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence,
and take not thy holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of thy salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, thou God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of thy deliverance.
O Lord, open thou my lips,
and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. (Ps. 51:10–15)
Gloria Patri, et Filii, et Spiritui Sancto.
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper,
Et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Contribution by Brother Anthony Myers
© SACROS 2006 {www.sacros.com}
To read homilies from other Sundays, click here.