Today's gospel: Jesus turned the tables in the Temple. This action took place in the most sacred of venues. What's with the young man who must have been the model of perfection? Today we might consider his actions as scandal. However, it was the custom that sacrificial offering animal be on sale for people who had traveled many miles to come to the Temple. However, what brought the babe of Bethlehem to lose his cool, we might say, was not the sale of the animals but the way in which the Temple had become a symbol of the rich getting richer and the poor growing poorer. The Temple had become an evil system imposing itself upon every aspect of the believer's faith.
A few questions to being home the point of Jesus' action might be helpful for us today. Imagine if Jesus were to announce to the world: I am coming to make a world tour. What would be the various "systems" that would assuredly bring him to similar actions as in the Temple? How are these examples for starters: wars, revolutions, repression, hatred, racism, homophobia, poverty, abortion? We might rightly assume Jesus would soon be exhausted. Just listing these human failures, is there any wonder why the world has been turned upside down?
What is the power of one candle in the darkness? How can one person make a difference? What are the "people of God" doing to make the world a better place today? And me? What am I doing, you can ask yourself? Do I act in ways that would have Jesus turning tables? Is my life a model of his life or have I weakened and lost the power of prayer in my life?
