In today’s gospel, Jesus gets angry at the corruption He finds in the temple and drives out all the money changers and sellers. He was criticizing the hypocrisy of the temple leadership by priestly elites and their disregard for the poor.

Jesus knew that by criticizing the temple leaders, they would want Him dead by crucifixion on the cross. When He said to them, “destroy this temple and I will raise it up again in three days,” He was speaking about the temple of His body.

Throughout history, people have wondered where is God to be found and how can we communicate with Him. The Jewish people felt that the temple was THE place to meet with God. Jesus reminds us that God is everywhere and not confined to any one place.

In today’s second reading, 1 Corinthians 3:16, St. Paul says “ you are God’s building, you are the temple of God and the spirit of God dwells within you. Anyone who destroys God’s temple, God will destroy, for the temple of God which you are, is holy.”

We are therefore to regard all our brothers and sisters as holy temples, more so than the bricks and mortar buildings where we gather to worship. It is because of the presence of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and also our own selves that give our churches their holiness.

There are 168 hours in a week. Most of us attend Mass once a week on Sunday for 1 hour to receive the sacraments, hear the Word of God read to us, listen to the Homily, pray and sing together and enjoy meeting with our fellow brothers and sisters. At the end of Mass we are told to go out and serve the Lord and each other. We are sent out in those remaining 167 hours to realize that God is with us wherever we are, in all walks of life, at work, in meetings, bringing up our children, helping and caring for each other. Every day is Sunday, every minute is Sunday. God loves us and wants us to feel His loving presence in every second of our lives and in everything that we do.

Thanks be to God.

Lloyd Lapierre