Scripture Reflections for Third Sunday of Lent

"Many people would have discovered internet shopping in the past year or, even if one were to go out to the supermarket in person, goods can be obtained without any exchange of cash or words – just the click of buttons or the tap of a card, and the transaction is complete. But this impersonal manner of shopping would have been foreign to my grandmother. As a child I would go with her to the..."

Fr. Lawrence Lew. "A Fair Deal?." Torch. March 2, 2021

"There is surprisingly little in common between St John’s Gospel and the other three. Apart, of course, from the bare facts of Jesus’s life, notably his crucifixion, there are very few stories from his biography that all four agree on. But today’s tale of the ‘cleansing of the temple’ is such a one, and all four Gospels see this incident as closely related to Jesus’s death. This is not simply because Jesus was just making..."

Fr. Richard Ounsworth. "Zeal for God's House." Torch. February 28, 2018

"Today's Gospel records an act of violence. Jesus goes into the temple and upsets the money-changers' tables. He drives the cattle and sheep out with a whip, along with the people who sold them. Away with the caged pigeons. This is the only violent act of Jesus recorded in the Gospels. With our modern sensibilities it seems shocking that the Prince of Peace is violent, even if only once."

Fr. Peter Harries. "A Many-Leveled Sign." Torch. March 11, 2012

"Today’s readings from Holy Scripture teach us that Lent is the ideal time to clean out the Temple of our own hearts and to offer to God proper Divine worship by obeying His Commandments. The first reading of the first Sunday of Lent presented us with the account of the covenant God made with Noah. Last week being the second Sunday of Lent we heard about the Covenant promises God made to Abraham and his..."

Father Lawrence Obilor. "The Purification of the Temple and of Religion." A Catholic Moment. March 7, 2021

"What is the best way to communicate law? Written law has its limitations, because we are all familiar with the concept of the “loophole.” There always seem to be methods of interpreting the written law in ways that run contrary to its intent. The constitution of the United States, for example, says that the “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” but somehow in American jurisprudence..."

John Bergsma. "Jesus, God’s Law." The Sacred Page. March 6, 2021

"Every week in churches throughout the world, baskets of money will be carried up the aisle and presented to the priest who presides at mass. There are many variations in the way this is done but anyone who was completely ignorant of Christianity might think that money was pretty central to Christian worship, and I think in some churches it probably is. Yet in today's Gospel, Jesus overturns the money changers tables, and throws them..."

Fr. Euan Marley. "The Hope that Does not Shame.." Torch. March 3, 2015

"The Gospel for today from St. John is sometimes called 'The cleansing of the Temple'. It is not just about the upsetting of the traders in the Temple: the money changers and the sacrificial victim sellers. It bodes the destruction of the Temple. It bodes the renewed establishment of the Temple in the resurrected body of Jesus Christ, the new sanctuary. It is an event in Jesus's life leading into his future, but also pointing..."

Fr. Jonathan Fleetwood. "The Living Temple." Torch. March 15, 2009

"The ten commandments are part of a story, a story of slaves being set free and learning -- or not learning -- to live like free people. Quite often, during their time in the wilderness, the people of Israel complained -- about the food or the lack of it, about the water or the lack of it, about the threats from enemies, real or imagined. And often the complaint ended with the cry, “Things were..."

Fr. Colin Carr. "Frightening Freedom." Torch. March 19, 2006

"The Liturgy of the Word today presents us with two partial but ultimately unsatisfactory ways of experiencing God. And by implication it contrasts these with the way we as Christians experience, or ought to experience, what God is like. The first way is the way of the Ten Commandments, the Ten Supreme Words of the Jewish Law, which express the experience of God as a moral lawgiver."

Fr. Aidan Nichols. "The Temple of his Body." Torch. March 23, 2003