Temple or Marketplace?

Today is the third Sunday of Lent.

The Gospel focused on one of the few incidents recorded in the Bible when Jesus displayed an emotion we call "righteous anger".

Upon entering the synagogue grounds, Jesus is awed and stressed at seeing how the temple grounds, once considered absolutely sacred, had been demonetized to a state no more noble than your local provincial wet market or palengke.

Where worshippers once walked piously to and from the temples' many doorways leading to the worship halls, animal traders, tax collectors and other hawkers of various goods and "prayer necessities" set up tables and stalls in front of cages of animals ranging from cows to goats to pigeons. What once was a quiet plaza where worshippers began to contemplate their prayer hour at the temple was transformed into a noisy den of thieves and cheats, all using religion as the basis for their businesses.

Well, this kind of irked the Lord, and what follows is well narrated in your trusty Bibles.

Unfortunately, not much has changed.

Literally.

Notwithstanding the "physical church": the structure and building where we go to worship the Lord -- our "personal temples": our very own hearts and souls -- have changed little in becoming the temple of the Holy Spirit that it was and still is meant to be.

If the Lord were to walk into the grounds of our temple, what would he find there?

A true Spirit of worship?

Or a den of thieves bent merely on providing oneself with the semblance of worship, when there is really nothing more than the desire to fulfill one's needs.

When we come to church just to fulfill an obligation, we are no better than the tax collectors who are there to remind worshippers of their obligations.

When we come to church just because it has been a practice we have become accustomed to, we are no better than the hawkers who go not to worship, but because it has become a routine for them to be there to sell their goods.

When we come to church with anger, hatred, hurt, unforgiveness, bitterness or any other ill-feelings or intent towards others for whatever reason, then we are no better than the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Zealots and Scribes who hide behind holy garments that do little to hide their true and often hypocritical natures.

More than a clean structure and a beautiful facade, Jesus seeks the purity of our inner temples.

What would Jesus find in your heart?

A Temple?

Or a Marketplace?

While you contemplate this, I'll be sweeping up my grounds.