November 18, 2016

Nov. 18

November 18, 2016:  Friday, 33rd week, Ordinary Time
  • 'Scroll' pin:  "Go, take the scroll..." (1st reading)
    • 'Angel' pin:  "I went up to the angel..."  (1st reading)
    • 'Honey' tie:  In your mouth the scroll will taste as sweet as honey. (1st reading)
    • Gold-colored suspenders bar:  Your law is more precious than gold (psalm)
    • 'Heart' pin:  Your decress are the joy of my heart (psalm)
    • 'Car' pin:  Jesus 'drove' out those selling things in the temple (gospel)
    • 'Gun' pin:  The leaders were seeking to put Jesus to death (gospel)
    • Green shirt, suspenders with clocks:  Ordinary Time season; countdown to its end
    Listen

    Jesus’s driving out of the traders from the temple helps us understand that attachment to money is seed of the antichrist that ruins God's Kingdom.  The house of our Lord is a house of prayer.  Our encounter with the Lord is with the God of love, but the money-lord keeps trying to enter into God's house.  The priests rented space to the traders and received money from them. The money-lord can ruin our life and lead us to a bad end, without happiness or the joy of serving the true Lord.
    Are you attached to money?  God's people forgive and try to justify priests' other weaknesses and sins, but they can't forgive a priest attached to money or who mistreats people.  Recall the teraphims, the idols Rachel hid, as an example of attachment to material goods.  Ask, "Lord, are you my Lord or is it these hidden teraphims, this idol of money?"  Be courageous; choose sufficient money like an honest worker's, not other financial interests.  Lord, grant us all the grace of Christian poverty, the poverty of people who work and earn a fair wage and don't seek more.
    Read
      Honey pot (1st reading)
      (Animate)
    • Rv 10:8-11  “Take and swallow the scroll; it'll turn your stomach sour but taste sweet.”  I did; it was sweet but turned my stomach sour.  “Prophesy again...”
    • Ps 119:14, 24, 72, 103, 111, 131  "How sweet to my taste is your promise!"  Your decrees are my delight, my counselors, my inheritance, my joy.  I gasp with open mouth in my yearning for your commands.
    • Lk 19:45-48  Jesus entered the temple area and drove out people selling things:  “My house shall be a house of prayer, but you've made it a robbers' den.”  He taught daily there.  The chief priests, scribes, and leaders were seeking to kill him but couldn't find a way because the people were hanging on his words.
    Reflect

    • Creighton:  "Enough is enough":  The temple, once a house of prayer, was a robbers' den, but it didn’t become so overnight.  Our ways grow worse gradually, daily, imperceptibly.  Many were responsible for the souring of the temple area, and Jesus was justifiably angry.  Today many are responsible for the neglect of the poor, the sick, refugees, and our planet...  God holds us accountable, but he's patient, kind, slow to anger, and quick to forgive....
    • One Bread, One Body:  "The Word on cleaning the temple":  Jesus ejected the traders not only by overturning their tables but also by proclaiming Jeremiah's prophecy.  The Holy Spirit uses prophesy like a sword to judge and purify our thoughts.  Jesus makes the Church "holy, purifying her... by the power of the word."  "You are clean, thanks to the word I have spoken to you."
      Christ driving the traders from the temple/ El Greco
      (more paintings and hidden meanings)
    • Passionist:  On the surface, Jesus' driving out the traders seems illogical and unwarranted; stalls supplying merchandise have always grown up around public places for buyers' convenience.  But Jesus wants to lead people to an undistracted sense of God, prayerful and personal, and cast all else aside.  How ‘crowded’ is my relationship with God?  Am I full of 'extras’:  ideas or preferences not required to live my life for God?  Do I need to have my own ‘cleansing’ of my inner sanctuary and return to a more fundamental relationship with God?
    • DailyScripture.net:  "All the people hung upon his words":  Jesus' temple cleansing is is the only incident where we see him use physical force; the act was a sign and warning that God takes our worship seriously.  He cleansed the temple of those using it to exploit worshipers. The money changers unjustly overcharged the poor and so dishonored God.  Jesus quoted from Isaiah and Jeremiah. The people who listened to Jesus teaching regarded him with awe and respect. How hungry am I for God's word?
      • Dedication of the Basilicas of SS. Peter and Paul:  Commemoration of dedication of St. Peter basilica at the Vatican and St. Paul basilica in the Via Ostiense honors the two great apostles as the dedication of St. Mary Major celebrates the Virgin Mother of God.
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