Friday, November 22, 2002
33rd Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Rev 10:8-11
Gospel: Lk 19:45-48
Jesus entered the Temple area and began to drive out the merchants. And he said to them, "God says in the Scriptures: My house shall be a house of prayer: but you have turned it into a den of robbers."
Jesus was teaching every day in the Temple. The chief priests and teachers of the Law wanted to kill him and the elders of the Jews as well, but they were unable to do anything, for all the people were listening to him and hanging on his words.
Commentary
There was plenty of money moving around in the Temple of Jerusalem. The pilgrims' flow from Palestine and from other places of the known world was continuous. The same happens today with Rome, Jerusalem and other Christian pilgrimage places, especially during the Jubilee Year two years ago. Believers go there in good will, but there are always people who take advantage of that situation to do business. Maybe it is unavoidable. But let us remember that we can find God, the God of Jesus, in any squatter area as well as in any of those places. Why don't we start making pilgrimages to those living sanctuaries who are our brothers and sisters, the poor?