April 1^st 2018.  Easter Sunday

GOSPEL   John 20, 1-9

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

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GOSPEL   John 20, 1-9

It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb’ she said ‘and we don’t know where they have put him.’

So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb. They ran together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first; he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in. Simon Peter who was following now came up, went right into the tomb, saw the linen cloths on the ground, and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed. Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . When Peter and John arrive at the empty tomb, they discover that they had not understood what was contained in the Scriptures. Easter involves the unexpected and imponderable action of God. The Lord’s salvation is always surprising! Moses seemed to be leading the people to a dead end, but then the Red Sea parted and the people of Israel were saved. Who would have thought that the road to freedom was through the sea! In his dark night of faith, Abraham was asked to sacrifice that which was most precious to him, and then he discovered that God does not take but only gives. In order to experience Easter, let us free ourselves from our stagnant modes of thinking! God moves the rocks and brings life from death! He opens roadways to freedom in the sea and creates life from nothingness! In order to experience Easter, let us abandon ourselves to the Lord and be led by him along pathways that are completely unexpected and are not our own. This Sunday, we proclaim the joyous resurrection of Jesus, which is not a preconceived scheme, or a spiritual technique, but an act of abandonment. It involves handing ourselves over to him and allowing him to lead us to a fuller life, a life that no one will ever be able to take from us.

God’s solutions are always surprising. The people of Israel escape from Egypt right through the middle of the Red Sea. Abraham receives the promise of the Lord during the night of faith in which he was asked to sacrifice his only son.

On this joyous feast of Easter we listen to the narrative regarding the discovery of the empty tomb. This is described in both the Gospel of the Easter Vigil and that of the Sunday Mass. The stone has been moved and Jesus’ body is no longer there. Peter and John race to the tomb. John arrives first but awaits Peter before entering. There is much symbolism in these different speeds of running and the respectful waiting by John. Peter goes inside and sees the cloths, but the body is certainly not there. Then John enters, “sees and believes”. They had not yet understood the Scripture that he must rise from the dead. Easter is something imponderable, the surprising action of God. It is the aspect of reality that we never calculated. It is the escape route, the solution that we never considered. That which we never understood, the sacred Scriptures, were the deposit in which all of these promises were contained. They tell us that God is surprising, that he is not like us, that his solutions are not the ones that we think us. The escape route for the people of Israel in the great story of the Jewish Passover was through the sea! Who would have ever suspected it! Moses appeared to be leading the people to a dead end, but the sea opened and they had the incredible experience of passing through it. The water that was their salvation was also the instrument by which the oppression of the Egyptians was destroyed. In a similar way, during the night of faith of Abraham, the Lord asked for the very thing that Abraham was most attached to. It was necessary for Abraham to discover that God does not ask; God gives. That which appears death becomes life; that which appears the end becomes the beginning.

Salvation always involves the unexpected action of God

The first three readings from the Vigil recount the great works of the Lord. In the first reading God creates from nothing. He puts life where there is no life. These are things that we are asked to understand, but we are unable to understand this creation from absolutely nothing. We do not comprehend a faith that is actually gaining everything at the very moment when it appears to be losing everything. We do not understand the solution of God which is always in the place where no one would think of looking. The successful escape of the Exodus did not depend on the speed of the people but on the power of God.

Let us free ourselves from our stagnant ways of thinking! The Lord opens roadways in the sea and brings life from nothing!

Our sin leads to destruction, but the Lord places himself there, in the midst of our confused and contradictory pathways. He accepts our sin, takes it upon himself, and transforms it into unexpected salvation. In the night of Easter we sing the proclamation which has the famous patristic phrase “O felix culpa!” - the happy fault that merited such a great Saviour. Because of the Lord, the sin is no longer closed up in itself but open to the saving action of God. The death that we inflict on Jesus is resolved in the response of the Father, the resurrection, the beginning of something that we will never fully understand. Let us free ourselves from our preconceived modes of thinking! God moves the stones and makes the dead rise! He opens roadways in the sea and brings life forth from nothingness.

In order to experience the Easter of the Lord, we do not need any special techniques or mental schemes. All we need to do is abandon ourselves to him and allow him to lead us on his unexpected pathway to life.

It is one thing to be fixated with our own capacities and limits, and to think that life depends on what we make of it; it is something completely different to abandon ourselves to the Lord and be led by him along pathways that are completely unexpected and are not our own. I will never know how the Lord intends to lead me, how he intends me to progress, but the important thing is that he is calling me to let myself be led by him. This Sunday, we proclaim the joyous resurrection of Jesus, which is not a preconceived scheme, or a spiritual technique, but an act of abandonment. It involves handing ourselves over to him and allowing him to lead us to a fuller life, a life that no one will ever be able to take from us. When someone experiences the Easter of the Lord, he will never forget it again. When our pain or our oppression has been illuminated by the power and providence of the paternity of the Lord, then it will remain with us forever. The Christian celebrates Easter over and over again because the seas part in front of us over and over again, the tomb opens in front of us many times, and that which seemed the end becomes a new beginning.

March 25^th 2018.  Palm Sunday

PROCESSIONAL GOSPEL   Mk 11:1-10

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

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PROCESSIONAL GOSPEL   Mk 11:1-10

When Jesus and his disciples drew near to Jerusalem,
to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, 
he sent two of his disciples and said to them, 
"Go into the village opposite you, and immediately on entering it, 
you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat.
Untie it and bring it here.
If anyone should say to you, 'Why are you doing this?' reply,
'The Master has need of it and will send it back here at once.'"
So they went off  and found a colt tethered at a gate outside on the street, 
and they untied it.
Some of the bystanders said to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?"
They answered them just as Jesus had told them to, 
and they permitted them to do it.
So they brought the colt to Jesus and put their cloaks over it.
And he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, 
and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields.
Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out:
"Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come!
Hosanna in the highest!"

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . On Palm Sunday, the Passion of Christ is proclaimed and Holy Week begins. If we try to approach the events of Holy Week in an intellectual way, it will slip through our grasp and will have no effect upon us. Christ loved us with his body. He gave us bread and wine as true sacramental signs of his body and blood. He was beaten, spat upon, crowned with thorns and nailed to a cross. With his body, he passed through the events of Easter and arrived at the resurrection and the Father. We too are asked to enter into the liturgies of Holy Week with our bodies: in the procession and waving of the palms on Palm Sunday; in the washing of the feet on Holy Thursday; in the veneration of the cross on Good Friday; with a festive vigil on Holy Saturday. We do not assimilate God’s salvation by reading books or by attending conferences, but with participation in the sacraments which trigger the working of grace in our lives. Easter must become tattooed and engraved on our bodies. In our bodies we have been loved by Christ.

The passion and death of Jesus is at the heart of the Gospel. This is not a passage to be read on an intellectual level. It must be lived, and for that reason we are asked to enter into the liturgy with our bodies

Palm Sunday is dedicated to the proclamation of the Passion. Literally speaking, the Gospels are long preparations for the narration of Our Lord's Passover, at which point the rhythm and intensity of the story clearly change. This proclamation is the heart of the Gospel, and it must always be remembered that passion and death are only a part of a single story, which, without the resurrection, is incomplete. There are essential elements in these texts that go beyond their vocal proclamation. In fact, vocal proclamation is not sufficient: one must "celebrate" this story; it is not enough to just read it or listen to it. It is not something to be comprehended solely with the mind, but something which must be lived. In fact, on Palm Sunday we are entering Holy Week, and it is an opening that has a lively and engaging liturgy. The event starts with a joyful procession and involves the use of palms. We are asked to kneel down when the story arrives at the point of Jesus' death, and we are asked to shake the palms during the Sanctus. The other liturgies of this week will introduce further gestures: the washing of the feet, the veneration of the cross on a day of fasting, and finally a festive night vigil. In short, it is a week when the whole body is invited to be involved, as always, in the liturgy. Because the salvation that Our Lord brings us is not just a different way of looking at things. With his body and through his body Christ saves us; and he saves our whole body, not just our intellect. It is in his true body that, passing through the events of Easter, he arrives at the Father.

Christ saved us with his body. He was anointed, gave us the bread and wine as sacramental signs of his body and blood, was beaten, spat upon, was crowned with thorns, nailed to the cross. With his body he loved us, and we are asked to respond with our bodies during these liturgies: through our fasting, our prayers, our physical and wholehearted participation in the liturgy.

He will receive perfume on his head, because the name “Christ” means "anointed with perfumed oil"; in the bread and wine he will give us the sacramental sign of his body and blood; prostrate in Gethsemane, he will invoke the heavenly Father with the intimate word of a child ("Abba"), while he hands himself over to the most terrible of fates; he will be betrayed with a kiss, they will lay their hands on him; and he will receive spits, blows and slaps; on his head will be placed a crown of thorns, and his hands and feet will be nailed to the cross. These are the essential features of the Passion as summarized in the Gospel of Mark. In his real body he will rise again, because in his real body he has been killed. The salvation he has wrought for us cannot be assimilated in a book or by attending a conference, but with the sacraments, with these liturgical acts that seal and trigger the works of grace in our lives. Tertullian, in the third century, said: Caro salutis est cardo, which means "the flesh is the cornerstone of salvation". If we approach Holy Week seeking to understand it intellectually, it will slip out of our hands and have no effect. In order for it to influence our existence, we must allow it to be written on our bodies, through liturgy, by acts of fasting, in genuine prayer, taking advantage of the opportunities that Providence gives us to be in communion with others and do deeds of mercy. Easter is something that must be tattooed, engraved on the body. We have been loved with the body. With the body we love.

March 18^th 2018.  Fifth Sunday of Lent

GOSPEL   John 12:20-33

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

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Congratulations to the Philippines on making December 8th a national holiday!

GOSPEL   John 12:20-33

Some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast
came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee,
and asked him, "Sir, we would like to see Jesus."
Philip went and told Andrew;
then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.
Jesus answered them,
"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat;
but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
Whoever loves his life loses it,
and whoever hates his life in this world
will preserve it for eternal life.
Whoever serves me must follow me,
and where I am, there also will my servant be.
The Father will honour whoever serves me.
"I am troubled now. Yet what should I say?
'Father, save me from this hour'?
But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.
Father, glorify your name."
Then a voice came from heaven,
"I have glorified it and will glorify it again."
The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder;
but others said, "An angel has spoken to him."
Jesus answered and said,
"This voice did not come for my sake but for yours.
Now is the time of judgment on this world;
now the ruler of this world will be driven out.
And when I am lifted up from the earth,
I will draw everyone to myself."
He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . In the first reading from Jeremiah, we hear of a new Covenant in which God’s law will be written in our hearts. But laws usually concern external compliance with a code of behaviour. How can we get to the stage of following God’s ways out of love and inner conviction? The Gospel tells us how! Some Greeks have heard of Jesus fame and wish to see him. How does Jesus respond? By saying, “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies it yields a rich harvest”. We cannot have love in our hearts, we cannot have new life, if our old ways still prevail within us. The Greeks thought they could casually observe this great miracle worker that they had heard about, but the truth is that if one wants to really encounter God, then one must empty oneself first. This self-emptying is not an act of the will, an exertion of our inner muscles, but an act of abandonment to the Lord. Don’t worry! Jesus makes up for what is lacking in us. In order for Jesus to arrive at the glory of the resurrection, He had to pass the oblivion of the tomb and annihilate himself completely. How can a man truly love a woman without giving himself entirely? How can a woman be a genuine spouse to her husband without giving everything and holding nothing back for herself? And how can God become our true God if we do not abandon our lives into His hands? This is the path to Easter and new life.

Jeremiah speaks of a new Covenant when the law will be written in our hearts. But how can we get to the point of observing God’s ways from our hearts, out of love and not out of obligation?

In this fifth Sunday of Lent, we hear the beautiful prophecy from the thirty-first chapter of Jeremiah concerning the new covenant, the covenant that will finally put into the heart of man the wisdom of God: “I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts”. How can a law be written in our hearts? When we speak of law, we are usually referring to a code that is observed physically and externally in a certain way. But there is a big difference between observing a norm because I am constrained to do so, and observing something that I cherish in my heart. It is the difference between legalistically observing a norm of behaviour and following that same pattern of behaviour out of love, because one has understood the norm to its depths. But how do we get to the stage of observing the norms because they are beautiful, because they have become part of us?

The Gospel, at first sight, seems to have a different theme. Jesus speaks of falling to the ground and dying in order to produce new life. And this is essentially the same point that we find in Jeremiah. In order to have the life of the new covenant in our hearts, we must die to our old ways

The Gospel seems to have another theme altogether, but if we reflect on the Gospel in its profundity, then we discover otherwise. The story of the Gospel has arrived at the point where even the Greek visitors to Jerusalem are asking about Jesus. Everyone is talking about him and wants to see him. Jerusalem is the place of the cult with great numbers of visitors, and many people wish to know if Jesus is the Messiah. Word comes to Jesus that some Greeks wish to see him, but his response is very strange. He says that the time has come for him to be glorified. “Truly I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone.” What is all of this about? Why is Jesus talking about death, about losing oneself? Unless a seed goes into a state of decomposition, it cannot become the plant. Jesus must die in order to manifest his glory. He must be annihilated in order to show that he is everything. “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.” In order to arrive at the new wisdom, in order to have love in our hearts so that we no longer do things solely out of obligation, in order to have new life, the old life must die. It is pointless to think that the new covenant, the beauty of the new relationship with God, can coexist with the way we were originally. We only recognize the power of God when we renounce our own power. When do we experience the power of God? When we cease trying to rely on our own resources. “Dying” in this sense does not mean dying biologically but serving and following the Lord Jesus.

The Greeks thought that Jesus was a spectacle to be casually observed, but we cannot truly encounter God unless we empty ourselves.

We are honoured by the Father when we give Him His rightful value. The word “honour” in Hebrew means to attribute to something its rightful value. It is only when we abandon our own lives into the hands of God that we, to the depths of our being, allow Him to give His life for us.  It is only then, like the seed, when we allow ourselves to be by broken down and destroyed, when we are taken to the point of nothingness, that we can become completely His. The Lord Jesus empties Himself completely because in us there is always something lacking. Easter and the time of resurrection are coming soon, so this is the time to open ourselves to this moment of transition. We must allow this phase of annihilation, of annulment, to happen. In order for Jesus to arrive at the glory of the resurrection, He had to pass the oblivion of the tomb. Jesus had the omnipotence of God within Him but it was left aside at the time of the crucifixion and death. The hands that were capable of healing were nailed to the wood. The feet that walked new paths were rendered immobile. The heart that was capable of such love was torn apart. He gave himself completely. How can a man truly love a woman without giving himself completely? How can a woman be a genuine spouse to her husband without giving everything and holding nothing back for herself? And how can God be our true God if we do not give Him our lives? The Greeks in the Gospel treated the Lord as a spectacle to be seen, but in reality one cannot encounter God unless one empties himself before God. This is not an act of the will or an exertion of the muscles, but an act of abandonment. What we really need to do is allow ourselves to be taken, allow ourselves to be saved, allow ourselves to be transfigured. We need to give Jesus everything and not resist Him any longer. We need to open the door, give Him the password, follow Him until He is truly our Lord. This is the road to Easter and new life.

 March 11^th 2018.  Fourth Sunday of Lent

GOSPEL   John 3:14-21

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

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GOSPEL   John 3:14-21

Jesus said to Nicodemus:
“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . The first reading tells of the exile to Babylon. This event is absolutely central to understanding the Old Testament. The people and priests are guilty of infidelity after infidelity until the anger of God reaches its limit and the people are carried off into exile. Why did the exile happen? For a variety of political and military reasons? No! Scripture is very clear: the exile happened because the people disparaged the benevolence and love of God for them. We too think that we have dozens of different problems, but in reality we have only one: our failure to believe and accept God’s love for us. This is what causes our “exile”, our unhappiness, our brokenness. Our preoccupation with our own self-realization leads us to ignore the love and compassion of God for us. The Gospel this Sunday proclaims the unconditional love of God for each of us: “God so loved the world that he sent his only Son so that whoever believes in him would not die but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world so that the world might be condemned, but so that it might be saved through him”. The key to every spiritual challenge we face is our acceptance of God’s loving salvation unveiled for us by the face of Jesus.

The exile is of great significance in the Old Testament. It is the key to reading many of the Messianic texts and to understanding the structure of the entire Hebrew Bible.

In this fourth Sunday of Lent we hear the marvellous dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus in the third chapter of the Gospel of John. The Gospel is prepared by the first reading from the second book of Chronicles. It is worth noting that this is the last book in the Hebrew Bible, so we are reading some of the last words in the Old Testament as far as the people of Israel were concerned. The reading describes the beginning and end of the terrible event of the exile. It is not possible to understand the structure of the Old Testament, the promises concerning the Messiah and the mentality underpinning the texts unless we take into account the significance of the exile. In the history of Israel there are many moments of darkness and light, tribulation and exultation, but the exile is a paradigm which has a particular significance.

The exile happened because the people did not accept the loving compassion of their God. After seventy years in exile they matured and their hearts returned to the Lord.

The description in the first reading is very densely summarised. The people and the priests of Israel were guilty of infidelity upon infidelity, committing the same abominations as others peoples and contaminating the Temple. The Lord in his compassion sent messenger after messenger to warn the people, but these were rejected until the anger of the Lord against his people reached its limit. As a consequence, the enemies of Israel demolished the walls of Jerusalem and entered the Temple. The people were put to the sword or carried off to slavery in Babylon. We could say that the ones who were sent into exile were those who disparaged prophecy, those who did not appreciate the special loving care of God towards his people. And then the text ends with these words: “In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to fulfil the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah,  the LORD inspired King Cyrus of Persia to issue this proclamation throughout his kingdom, both by word of mouth and in writing: ‘Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me, and he has also charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of his people, let him go up, and may his God be with him!’” There is a people who went into exile and, by the generous providence of God, there is a people who returned from exile. What is it that caused the people to be sent into exile? Their disparagement of the love of God for them. What permits them to return from exile? The loving care of God. Only now the people are able to take this love seriously. During the seventy years of exile, the people mature a lot and learn many lessons. Scripture has many testimonies to the benefits that accrued as a result of this period of correction.

The real problem of humanity is its rejection of the love of God. This is what causes our “exile” and belief in God’s love helps us to return!

The Gospel too proclaims that there is a way back, a way of light, a way to reach salvation. This salvation impinges on the central problem of humanity. Was the event of the exile in Babylon the result of economic, political or military factors? No. Scripture tells us that it was a result of the rejection of the benevolence of God. As the Gospel says, “God so loved the world that he sent his only Son so that whoever believes in him would not die but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world so that the world might be condemned, but so that it might be saved through him”. Belief in the love of God, belief that God desires to save us, belief in his benevolence: this is what permits us to return from exile! What is the real tragedy of man? This or that pain, disaster or setback? No! The real tragedy is that we do not believe that God loves us dearly. Our love of anger, our attachment to complaining, our tendency to wallow in negative attitudes instead of welcoming the tender love of the Lord for us. It is vital that we believe that God is saving us in every single event of our lives! He does not forget us. He is love and treats us as his dearest children . In Jesus Christ, God has made his face known. The key to every spiritual challenge we encounter is to believe in the love of God and his goodness.

This Sunday, the unconditional love of God for you and me is proclaimed!

We tend to think that we have dozens of problems, but the only thing that ultimately determines our happiness is whether we open ourselves to receive his tenderness. God can only offer us his love. If he forces it upon us then it is not love. The love of the Lord is offered as a gift, but like any gift we can take it or leave it. How many books have been given to us as gifts that we have not even opened! And it is the same with the love of God. We do not accept this gift because we are too preoccupied by our own affairs. This Sunday the unconditional, generous offer of salvation is proclaimed. Jesus shows us the face of God. He unveils the fact that none of us should feel left out of salvation. All can be saved because all are loved! We all have the capacity to say no. It is a really vital matter that we welcome this beautiful invitation. In Sunday’s Gospel, God presents himself as someone who implores us, saying: “Welcome me. Believe me. Allow yourself to be loved by me”.

 March 4^th 2018.  Third Sunday of Lent

GOSPEL   John 2:13-25

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

(Check us out on Facebook – Sunday Gospel Reflection)

GOSPEL   John 2:13-25

Since the Passover of the Jews was near,
Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves,
as well as the money changers seated there.
He made a whip out of cords
and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen,
and spilled the coins of the money changers
and overturned their tables,
and to those who sold doves he said,
"Take these out of here,
and stop making my Father's house a marketplace."
His disciples recalled the words of Scripture,
Zeal for your house will consume me.
At this the Jews answered and said to him,
"What sign can you show us for doing this?"
Jesus answered and said to them,
"Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."
The Jews said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years,
and you will raise it up in three days?"
But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
Therefore, when he was raised from the dead,
his disciples remembered that he had said this,
and they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.
While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,
many began to believe in his name when they saw the signs he was doing.
But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all,
and did not need anyone to testify about human nature.
He himself understood it well.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . The first reading has the proclamation of the Ten Commandments. Is there a commandment that is more important than the others? In the rabbinic tradition there is the story that a disciple goes to his rabbi and asks: “Why do the last commandments tell us not to desire the property or wife of my neighbour when the earlier commandments already prohibit stealing and adultery? Do the commandments repeat themselves?” The rabbi replies: “The earlier commandments prohibit the transgression itself but the final commandments tell us the origin of our transgression, which is the desire of the heart”. In the Gospel we read the account of Jesus’ purification of the Temple, when he chases the merchants and money-changers away with a cord. The purification of the Temple precedes the real job of purification which Jesus came to accomplish: the purification of our hearts. It is the state of our hearts that is responsible for everything that we do. Jesus once said that it is not that which enters our mouth which defiles us but that which comes forth from the heart. When we assume and welcome our baptism, we are regenerated by Jesus so that we begin to be filled with the desires of the Holy Spirit. We need Jesus to purify our hearts! It is useless to think that we can be transformed if we just apply ourselves with more determination, or if we try to change ourselves on the outside. We need to be changed from within. We need Jesus to enter our hearts with a cord and drive away the sellers whose only interest is material gain. Do we think that we will get anywhere if we allow Godliness and materialism to cohabit our hearts?  Purification involves an interior dying to these things. Only the Lord Jesus can change our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.

Is there one commandment which goes beyond all the others?

On this third Sunday of Lent, Year B, we hear the dramatic Gospel recounting the purification of the Temple by Jesus. It is interesting that John has this event at the beginning of his Gospel, whilst the other Gospels place this scene in the last week of Jesus’ life close to the completion of his mission. But John describes this very serious event immediately after the account of the wedding feast at Cana. The first reading has the proclamation of the Ten Commandments. An interesting question to ask ourselves is: “What verse or phrase encapsulates the entire Gospel?” Of course, it is not possible to find a single phrase of this sort, but nevertheless it can be a helpful way to deepen our understanding of the Gospel. A similar question is: “Is there a commandment that helps us enter more deeply into the other nine commandments?”  The last two commandments (which are ordered differently in the classic account from Exodus than the numbering normally used by the Christian churches) demand that we not desire the wife or property of our neighbour. They can be collapsed into a single commandment that requires that we not desire what belongs to others. Could this be the most important commandment? How could such an assertion be justified? There is a celebrated rabbinic commentary that discusses this very issue. A disciple puts a question to his rabbi: “Why does the blessed Isaiah tell us not to desire the house, livestock or slave of our neighbour? He had already instructed us not to steal. Moreover, why did he tell us not to desire the wife of our neighbour when he had already told us not to commit adultery? Perhaps the holy and blessed Isaiah has given us commandments that are superfluous?” The rabbi responds: “By means of the other commandments the blessed Isaiah has shown us the transgressions that we are to avoid, but in this final commandment he tells us the origin of all the other commandments: desire, that which is in the heart”.

Jesus wishes to purify my heart, since it is the origin of everything that I do

In the last line of the Gospel for Sunday, we are told: “But Jesus would not trust himself to  them because he knew them all, and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well.” In other passage from the Gospel we hear that it is not that which enters the mouth that contaminates man, but that which proceeds from the heart. Where does our tragedy have its source? Our robberies, our adulteries, our homicides? All of these things are simply the result of what we have in our hearts. It is by our desires that we are crucified. Jesus’ purification of the Temple is a forerunner to another kind of purification, the purification of our hearts. And if we do not experience this purification, then everything that we do is a waste of time. Until our hearts are rid of that which produces our destruction, we will never be happy.

We must enter into our baptism, be purified by Jesus, so that our hearts are changed and begin to have the desires of the Holy Spirit. These desires will regenerate our lives and reorient our being

Often our lives are miserable not because they are miserable in themselves, but because we want them to be different than they are. How often we are dissatisfied, angry and frustrated only because our lives do not correspond to our own expectations. What is it that crucifies man? His expectations. Not reality, but what he expects from reality. Jesus discovers that the Temple has been exploited for gain and advantage, and the Lord must perform his task of the reconstruction of things, the reconstruction of this Temple which is humanity. Our experience of baptism, if assumed by us, if welcomed by us, becomes the basis of a radical re-foundation of our being. Beginning from our hearts, our baptism engenders in us different desires, as described in Galatians 5. These desires of the Spirit involve a reorientation of our being. We might try to change ourselves from the outside; we might seek to be faithful by applying ourselves with more determination; by not looking at what is not ours, not doing the things prohibited by the Law; but it is the heart that is the origin of all these things! It is the heart that is sick and is the origin of all our suffering, the heart that is the source of these desires that do not come from the Holy Spirit!

We need Jesus to drive these merchants of material things from our heart. We try to allow these material fixations to cohabit our hearts along with our religious sentiments. But such a condition will lead us nowhere. We need Jesus to purify us, which involves a dying on our part. Only Jesus can liberate us so that our hearts are filled with the desires of the Spirit

Jesus needs to give a hiding to some of the merchants, the sellers who focus on material gain, that dwell in our hearts. This Lent let us receive from the Lord Jesus the gift of being purified by him. Jesus knows what is in our hearts and is capable of giving us new desires. Through his word he can bring to fruition a new orientation in our hearts. If this does not happen, then we will end up going nowhere. And the problem is that we are inclined to allow these merchants to cohabit alongside the Temple. The work Jesus wishes to do is chase these merchants away from the Temple. We try to allow worldliness and Godliness to stay together side by side. Our egocentric desires, directed to our own self-realization, sitting side by side with the true God? No, this is not possible! Purification requires a dying on our part, a destruction. Let us allow ourselves to be “destroyed” by the Lord and challenged by his word. Let us permit Jesus to enter our hearts with the cord, correct us and tell us what we need to hear, fertilize the Good News within us. This Sunday the liturgy speaks powerfully to our hearts. Our hearts must be liberated by the only one who knows how to renew them, the only one who can transform them from hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.