by Br. Antony Maldonado, O.S.B.

      Jesus wanted to Temple in Jerusalem to remain always focused on what it was built for:  to worship God.  So after His way to Jerusalem for the Passover and entering the Temple, He finds a great source of distraction in the numerous money changers and animal sellers found there.  All of them were busy providing the necessary means for the sacrifices and rituals prescribed by the Law of Moses (remember how years before Mary and Joseph offered a pair of turtledoves at the presentation of Jesus in the Temple), but with time their aim shifted from service to profit.  Jesus makes His point in a dramatic way so that His intention would be clear to those around Him; and for peoples in generations to come.

     We also have to keep the focus in our churches.  Seasonal decorations, announcements of future activities, objects of devotion, etc., all should remain in a secondary plane.  Because the church is the Body of Christ, it has to be focused on its head:  Jesus.  On the individual level, our bodies are temples too (of the Holy Spirit) and it is there that the God-centeredness has to start.  Let us avoid just going through the motions in our religious practices of falling into fulfilling the external expressions without true internal devotion, because we may deceive ourselves and others, but never God.

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