Tuesday, March 17, 2026

 

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

(Ezekiel 47:1-9.12; John 5:1-16)

A few Christians may think of the Jerusalem Temple as a place of worthless sacrifice and false piety. Jesus did predict its destruction, and three gospels tell of its veil being sundered at Jesus’ death.  However, Luke’s Gospel and Acts of the Apostles along with most of Scripture see the Temple in a positive light.  Today’s reading from Ezekiel tells why. The Temple has served for centuries as a font of life-giving grace.

Nevertheless, today gospel testifies that Jesus replaces the Temple as the source of grace.  He restores health to the sick man who has long waited in vain at the Temple’s gate.  Jesus shows himself to be living water more effective than the Temple’s.  He bestows life in abundance.

Rather than dwell on the shortcomings of the Temple, we should see it as a provisional measure.  In it God prepared Israel for the coming of His Son.  The animal holocausts offered there for the forgiveness of sins help us appreciate Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.  The beauty and magnificence of its structure bespoke God’s presence.  Now we find God’s integral presence in His Son.

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Tuesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ezra 6:7-8.12b.14-20; Luke 819-21)

The long first reading from the Book of Ezra today invites commentary.  It relates part of the story of the building of the so-called “Second Temple.”  The first temple “of Solomon” was destroyed by the Babylonians.  The current temple will not match it, but near the time of Christ King Herod will give a significant upgrading.  The issue here is not who builds a more magnificent temple.  Rather, it is construction of a monument worthy of the Lord that will call people together in praise.

Once a minister asked a parishioner why he did not attend religious services the previous Sunday.  The man replied that he went fishing.  He said that he felt closer to God in nature than in church. The preacher replied that it is good he feels close to God in nature, but churches are God’s preferred place of prayer.  There men and women come together as a people in peace and love to give God, their common Father, fitting thanks and praise.

Covid took a toll on Mass attendance.  Many people have lost the custom of coming to church on Sunday.  Some say they watch mass via the Internet, but that is not attending it.  One shortcoming is that they cannot receive Holy Communion, which puts us literally in touch with the Lord.  Our sharing the Eucharist in a humble church without organ accompaniment is hardly the experience of solemn Mass in a grand cathedral.  But it does give adequate praise to the Lord.

Friday, November 19, 2021

 Friday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

(I Maccabees 4:36-37.52-59; Luke 19:45-48)

In all estimation the Jerusalem Temple, when it stood, was the center of Israel’s life.  It was twice constructed.  Solomon built a lovely structure in the tenth century B.C.  This building was destroyed by the Babylonians toward the beginning of the sixth century.  When the Israelis returned from captivity in Babylon fifty years later, they rebuilt the Temple.  This second structure was expanded by King Herod before Christ was born.  It stood less than a century more. The Romans, putting down a Jewish rebellion, almost obliterated it.  What is left, the west or “wailing wall,” remains a place of pilgrimage for Jews.

Both readings today focus on the holiness of the Temple.  In the first, the Maccabean brothers celebrate its rededication after being purified of desecration by Greeks and Jewish apostates.  Jesus symbolically does the same as he drives out merchants.  The Temple was holy because it contained the divine presence from the Scriptures stored in its inner chambers.

Christians do not have a single structure with the significance of the Jerusalem Temple.  The sacrifice of Christ to atone for the sins of all is re-presented in all churches which retain the apostolic succession.  Equally true, we see every baptized person as a kind of Temple.  At Baptism the person receives in his or her soul the Holy Spirit, who is God.  It is our sacred duty to keep the Temple of our soul pure and holy.

 

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Tuesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ezra 6:7-8.12b.14-20; Luke 8:19-21)

Contemporary Catholics flock to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.  The immense structure creates awe not just for its grandeur but for the faith it signifies.  However, St. Peter’s is of lesser importance to Catholics than the Jerusalem Temple was to Old Testament Jews.  The latter was univocally the “house of God.” Only in that Temple could Jews offer sacrifice to make up for their sins.  For this reason the charge that Jesus would destroy the Temple was taken utmost seriousness.  Today’s first reading speaks of the dedication of the second Temple in the sixth century before Christ.

The scribe Ezra records how the Temple was actually commissioned by Persian kings.  He says it was built by donations from the people as well as with public funds.  He also mentions the feast prepared for the Temple’s dedication.  Four hundred lambs are slaughtered for the occasion. But this sacrifice pales in comparison to the preparations for the dedication of Solomon’s Temples.  David’s son had 120,000 sheep slain for his Temple’s dedication.  One factor is that people are poorer in Ezra’s time.  Perhaps they have been humbled by the tragic immorality that led to the first Temple’s destruction.

Churches, temples, and mosques are the most fitting places to worship God.  We should frequent them more often than to meet the weekly obligation.  They do not have to be large or filled with expensive ornamentation although these features have some value.  What is important is that we pray in these places fervently.  We need God’s grace to follow Jesus’s way to God’s heavenly home.

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

(Ezekiel 47:1-9.12; John 5:1-16)

“See Naples and die!” is a famous dictum proclaiming the glory that once belonged to the southern Italian city.  The readings today suggest a more compelling paraphrase: “See Jesus and live!”

The first reading from the prophet Ezekiel anticipates the wonder of the Jerusalem temple.  Solomon’s temple had been destroyed by the Babylonians.  Toward the beginning of the exile Ezekiel had the vision of a new temple.  It would be magnificent in structure and contain marvelous properties like life-giving water.  The gospel shows that Jesus exhibits the properties of the temple in Ezekiel’s vision.  Earlier in the gospel Jesus referred to his body as a temple to be destroyed and resurrected.  In today’s passage he shows how his restorative power supersedes that of the contemporary temple’s waters.

We must see Jesus as the one who gives us the fullness of life.  He reinforces us so that mundane impulses do not lead our spirits to destruction.  He also brings us to an eternal dwelling place with his Father.  He deserves both our imitation and our trust.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Lent

(Ezekiel 47:1-9.12; John 5:1-16)

Water has been long associated with healing.  Hindu pilgrims come in myriads to the Ganges River in hope of cures.  Western believers imbibe the spring waters at Lourdes praying for a miracle.  Natural baths the world over have devotees seeking their medicinal effects.

The reading from Ezekiel today manifests the healing power of the Jerusalem temple by describing it as the source of water.  The liquid begins as trickle emerging from its threshold and quickly grows in volume.  As it leaves the structure’s confines, it becomes a torrent that irrigates fruit trees providing both food and medicine.  In the gospel Jesus shows his ability to cure as ever more efficacious.  He instantaneously heals the sick man who lacks the wherewithal to plunge himself into the temple waters. 

We may see Jesus as a kind of river of plenty.  Like the Ganges, he heals us of infirmities.  Like the Nile in Egypt, he provides us the means for sustenance.  Like the Mississippi in the United States, he transports us home.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Friday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

(I Peter 4:7-13; Mark 11:11-26)

We should not be distressed when Jesus curses the fig tree. He is not in league with BP Incorporated; he is only making a symbolic gesture for what is coming in Jerusalem. The people at the Temple will not recognize him as Israel’s Messiah who will provide perfect worship as well as true leadership. Rather, when he comes into the Temple area, he will find business as usual -- men paying prescribed amounts for sacrifices that can hardly make up for their unrighteous lives. This charade, symbolized by the fig tree with the splendor of its leaves but no fruit, is what has to go.

In just a few days Jesus will be hanging on a cross outside the same Jerusalem. It will seem to many Jews as the execution of a troublemaker. But his followers will know that the people have had God’s beloved killed. This will become the sacrifice which renders the Temple superfluous. From that point on all people will have to do to find a worthy sacrifice is offer bread and wine as Jesus prescribes at his final supper. Of course, their act of worship must be accompanied by lives given to the holiness which Jesus lived.

It may be a shame to see Jesus as anti-environmental, but it would be a greater shame to see Christianity as opposed to Judaism. Certainly hypocrisy had its play among Jews in Jesus’ day just as today many Christians embarrass the Church. But Judaism is not just the root onto which Christianity was grafted but the pot in which it incubated. Faithful Jews deserve our respect and attention. They have much to tell us of the kind of Savior that we have in Jesus.

Homilette for Friday, September 25, 2009

Friday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time

(Haggai 2:1-9; Luke 9:18-22)

“Nine-eleven” was such an outrageous assault on the United States not only because it claimed so many lives but also because it attempted to destroy the nation’s dominant symbols. Its perpetrators were able to bring down the World Trade Center, the symbol of economic power, and to damage the Pentagon, the symbol of military power. The terrorists who hijacked the fourth airliner may well have targeted the White House or the Capitol – centers of political power before they were thwarted The first reading today similarly focuses on a potent national symbol.

The Temple became the center of Jewish worship and of Jerusalem’s economic life. Its original construction by King Solomon was laden with riches. Its reconstruction after the Exile – the focus of the reading today – was necessarily humbler given the hardship of the people during those times. Its final version, engineered by King Herod, contained the largest area dedicated to sacred worship in ancient times. Jerusalemites lived off the revenue received from pilgrims visiting its confines.

The Roman army destroyed Herod’s Temple in 70 A.D., an event which ended the Jewish legacy of Temple worship. The Gospel, however, sees the Temple functionally destroyed with the crucifixion of Jesus and then rebuilt in three days with his resurrection. The new Temple, which is not a physical structure but a spiritual one, fulfills Haggai’s prophecy. God has brought peace to earth because in the Body of Christ -- that is, the Church -- people of every nation give glory to God by living justly and lovingly.

Homilette for Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Tuesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time

(Ezra 6:7-8.12b.14-20; Luke 8:19-21)

Fishing on Sunday morning, a man wondered why some thought he should be in church. Was he not close to God on the lake communing with creation and thanking the Lord for the serenity his heart felt? We might ask, what is the need for churches in the first place? People could pray together in small groups meeting in homes.

Yet churches serve the human need to respond to God’s goodness. Much more than places for the community to assemble, churches praise God by the dedication of human ingenuity and effort to a structure that no person really owns but is “God’s house.” In most cultures churches, temples, and synagogues express the human desire to reserve the best for God. Surely this is why tour guides always feature a church or temple as a “must see.”

The first reading today refers to the rebuilding of Solomon’s temple after the exile. Judah’s returning remnant finished the construction and dedicated the building in 515 B.C. It was necessarily humbler its predecessor and definitely less spectacular than its successor built by Herod the Great and frequented by Jesus. Obviously, however, this temple was the best that the people could manage and represented their tribute to the Lord who rescued them from foreign lands.

Homilette for Friday, November 21, 2008

Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

(Revelation 8:1-11; Psalm 119; Luke 19:45-48)

Today’s memorial pictures the day when Mary’s aged parents presented her to the Lord in Jewish Temple. There is no record of this event in any of the four canonical gospels although an apocryphal gospel, the “Protoevangelium of James,” does tell of it. Since this source appears relatively late in the Christian tradition, scholars doubt its accuracy.

The Church retains the feast on its calendar at least partly because it recalls the founding of a church dedicated to Mary near the Temple site. More to the point, Christians see Mary herself as the new Temple where the Holy Spirit dwells. Bearing Jesus in her womb, she becomes the shrine of the holy.

By happy coincidence today’s gospel reading shows Jesus cleansing the Temple as recorded by the evangelist Luke. Of all the gospel writers Luke gives by far the most favorable impression of the Temple. His gospel begins there with the account of the angel’s revelation to Zachariah that his wife will give birth to a son. It also ends in the Temple where the disciples retreat to praise God after Jesus’ ascension. In Luke Jesus purifies the Temple area not because the Temple is corrupt but because of marketing excesses carried on there. Significantly, he returns to the Temple area to teach. We must never forget that Jesus was always a law-abiding Jew with high regard for the Temple. Now we can exalt the Temple all the more since it not only is a holy place where the Lord habituated; it is also an image for his most blessed mother.

Homilette for Friday, November 9, 2007

You can find homilettes for weekdays between October 29 and today below.

Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome

(John 2:13-22)

Today’s feast, the Dedication of St. John Lateran, is somewhat of an anomaly. That is, it is somewhat unusual. We seldom celebrate the anniversaries of churches. But the Lateran Basilica, as it is called, is also known as the “mother church of Christendom” or “the pope’s church.” In celebrating it we celebrate all Christian churches.

Today’s gospel shows Jesus driving money-changers from the Temple area. Speaking of anomalies, we see Jesus in this scene, which is repeated in each of the four gospels, using force. We should not conclude that he regularly resorted to arms or that he would tolerate their employment as much as our society does. Jesus remains the Prince of Peace who warned us that the one who “lives by the sword dies by the sword” and commanded us to “love your enemies.” He takes us the whip as an extreme act to show necessary regard for God’s house.

We should have a similar reverence for our churches. God can encounter humans anywhere He chooses. But we build churches to His glory so that He might choose to meet us there regularly. As we enter church we customarily dip our fingers in the holy water font and make the sign of the cross. This signifies our cleansing ourselves of the contaminants of the world – the inordinate desire for fame, fortune, and fun – so that we might listen to God talk to our hearts.

Homilette for Friday, June 1, 2007

Friday, VIII Ordinary (St. Justin Martyr)

(Mark 11)

An “objective correlative” is a literary device to describe the workings of the mind. An example of an objective correlative is the woods on a snowy evening in Robert Frost’s famous poem. The woods filling up with snow are the cold and bleek events of life which the sleigh rider means to contemplate.

In the gospel Mark presents us an objective correlative in the fig tree that does not bear fruit. Jesus curses its sterility as a sign of his disgust with the Temple which he enters next. It is not only the money changers who bother Jesus. It is also that the Temple is not allowing adequate worship of God. As he curses the fig tree, he throws out the money changers. As he throws out the money changers, the Temple will be symbolically destroyed with his death on the cross.

We should see Jesus’ action as a sign of what will happen to us if we do not produce good fruit. God has been most generous to us with his endowment of the Holy Spirit. It cannot be for nothing. Rather, we must serve Him by caring for the weak and encouraging the righteous.