Wonder Seekers Miss the Point

We're giving you Scriptures today that you may not hear next Sunday at all. Possibly you'll study these texts all week, show up for Mass next Sunday, and hear the deacon or priest reading about the woman at the well (John 4:5-42). No need to adjust the antenna or phone the chancery. The lectionary gives us a choice.

The readings from Year A of the cycle include the woman at the well. Year B, which we offer this week, reports the cleansing of the temple. However, during any Lent that you have elect preparing for an Easter baptism in your parish, you can and should hear the readings from Year A on week three, four, and five of this penitential season. The reason is that meditating on those stories (The Woman at the Well, The Man Born Blind, and The Raising of Lazarus) helps the elect understand their coming to faith. These stories also help the parish community express its prayer and support for the elect in the Scrutinies (special prayers for the unbaptized), which fall on these Sundays.

So, if your parish has elect, it should have Scrutinies this Sunday. If you have Scrutinies, you should hear The Woman at the Well. If you have no elect, or if the Scrutinies are celebrated at a Mass different from the one you're attending, you may well hear The Cleansing of the Temple.

Obviously if your biggest concern on Sunday is how to keep the kids from pulling each other's hair and scribbling on the back of the next pew, all this won't matter very much to you. That's fine -- Lent is about charity as much as it's about prayer.

Calling what Jesus did at the temple a "cleansing" may be a bit of a misnomer here. No can of Ajax appears to the divine scourer. By the time Jesus is through upsetting tables, spilling coins and shooing away doves, the temple is probably a lot dirtier than when he arrived.

Besides, the reason we hear this text today is not to proclaim that cleanliness is next to Godliness. Rather, the point is to hear Jesus' prediction: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." This confuses Jerusalem, but we know with our Easter eyes that he's speaking about the resurrection of the "temple" of his own body. The liturgy gives us this prediction today to help us prepare for the great miracle that concludes the season.

Incidentally, John puts this episode near the beginning of his Gospel (2: 13-25), right after the first miracle at the wedding at Cana. The other Gospels claim Jesus raged against the temple marketplace at the beginning of Holy Week. In fact, they see it as one of the main reasons for his arrest -- his "desecration" of the temple.

In John, the raising of Lazarus in Chapter 11 is the event that finally leads to Jesus' arrest. By placing the temple episode here John introduces us to the resurrection and the comparison of the temple to the "body of Christ." When Jesus says he would "raise up" the temple in three days, John has him use a verb that could refer to the erection of a building or the resurrection of a body.

As a result of this prophecy, many come to believe in the resurrection. John says many also believe because of the signs Jesus worked. But in an interesting development, Jesus does not "entrust himself to them" because he knew their thoughts. Seekers of signs and wonders miss the point of Jesus' ministry. Jesus does not trust them, even if they say they believe.

Jesus stormed the temple marketplace at the risk of his own life, and used the occasion to teach about the resurrection. Which institutions today abuse their privilege ? Have you ever taken a strong stand against them? Even at the risk of embarrassing yourself? Or losing your life?

Where does our Church take a strong stand against society's institutions? How does society misunderstand our intentions?

If Jesus walked into your parish church, your office, or your home, which tables would he overturn? Whom would he anger?

As you continue your journey through Lent, Christ may be overturning the tables of your life. But he destroys only to promise. After three days, the temple will rise.

[Published in the Catholic Key for the 3rd Sunday of Lent - 3/6/94]