The Abbot's Homily

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  • Third Sunday of Lent
    Cycle B
    2000

    First Reading
    Exodus 20, 1-17


    God delivered all these commandments: "I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me. You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their fathers' wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation; but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation, on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments. "You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain. For the Lord will not leave unpunished him who takes his name in vain. "Remember to keep holy the sabbath day. Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord, your God. No work may be done then either by you, or your son or daughter, or your male or female slave, or your beast, or by the alien who lives with you. In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord has blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. "Honor your father and your mother, that you may have a long life in the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you. "You shall not kill. "You shall not commit adultery. "You shall not steal. "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass, nor anything else that belongs to him."

     

    Second Reading
    1 Corinthians 1, 22-25


    Jews demand "signs" and Greeks look for "wisdom," but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, and an absurdity to Gentiles; but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's folly is wiser than men, and his weakness more powerful than men.

     

    Gospel
    John 2, 13-25


    As the Jewish Passover was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple precincts he came upon people engaged in selling oxen, sheep and doves, and others seated changing coins. He made a [kind of] whip of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, sheep and oxen alike, and knocked over the money- changers' tables, spilling their coins. He told those who were selling doves: "Get them out of here! Stop turning my Father's house into a marketplace!" His disciples recalled the words of Scripture: "Zeal for your house consumes me." At this the Jews responded, "What sign can you show us authorizing you to do these things?" "Destroy this temple," was Jesus' answer, "and in three days I will raise it up." They retorted, "This temple took forty-six years to build, and you are going to 'raise it up in three days'!" Actually he was talking about the temple of his body. Only after Jesus had been raised from the dead did his disciples recall that he had said this, and come to believe the Scripture and the word he had spoken. While he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name, for they could see the signs he was performing. For his part, Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all. He needed no one to give him testimony about human nature. He was well aware of what was in man's heart.

    Text from Lectionary for Mass
    © 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine
    © 1969 International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc.
    All rights reserved


    My Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

    How do I use my energy? Do I look for God's will in my life? Do I try to find out what is right and good before acting?

    The Ten Commandments of the book of Exodus are not just laws that God made up to try to give us a bad time. Rather, they are part of the wisdom given to us by our God so that we can live joyful lives that are full of depth and meaning. So often we adult Christians have never grown up and still look at religious commandments and laws like little children. We want our pleasures and we feel that God takes them away from us.

    Living is about living well. Too often we seem only to survive and not have energy to live with energy and vigor. Sometimes we have no choice over our physical health but always we have some input about the way we live spiritually. It is spiritual energy and vigor that bring joy and depth of meaning into our lives.

    Religion has often become simply a way of playing games with God. The readings today invite us to live at a different level. We are invited to allow God to be present within us so that we are His temples. The Lord Jesus makes a clear lesson about the destruction of the temple and rebuilding it. The Gospel writer makes sure that we understand that Jesus Himself applies the image of the temple to His own body.

    Are we living in such a way that we are truly temples of the Lord? What kind of life do we live? Is our religion on a set of rules that we think we can manipulate to gain God's love?

    Or are we living from the very depths of our being, seeking to know the living God, striving to live with the divine life given to us in baptism?

    When we begin to look at life from this perspective, everything begins to change. We have to make some hard choices so that we begin to use our energies for the divine life. The daily struggle becomes part of the joy of seeking to live in Christ and do His will.

    Lent is a time for us to look again at how we live. Let us live well and rejoice in the Lord.

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    © 2000 The Monastery of Christ in the Desert