I remember I had the good fortune of being assigned to the Church of All Saints in Florence, Italy,
when our institute first took charge of it.
And it's a church in which there are many tourists visiting Florence there to see the artwork,
and many of them also come into the church to see the beautiful art that's there.
And they come from all over the world, and I'm sure many of them aren't even Christians.
And at the time, I wasn't a priest. I was sacristan for the first two months that we were there.
And while I was in the sanctuary, cleaning or doing some sort of work,
one of the people who was walking around the church came up to me,
and he pointed behind the sanctuary, and he said,
What is that picture of?
And I looked up, and behind the high altar, up on the back vault of the ceiling,
there was an image of our Lord with the cord,
and pointing his finger on the front of the temple, the entrance to the temple.
And everybody was fleeing the scene.
The women, the money changers on the floor, the tables overturned,
and the oxen and the doves taking off.
And again, he asked the question because it isn't the usual way,
the way in which we think of the good and gentle Jesus that we hear of so often.
Indeed, the scene where our Lord makes a scourge with his own hands.
He makes the cord, the whip with little cords with his own hands,
and he drives the money changers out.
He pours the money all over the floor, and he overthrows tables.
It's a surprising scene.
One which...
One which we call, commonly, the cleansing of the temple.
And why does our Lord do this?
Why does he act in such a way?
You know, many today would say,
Our Lord is not being pastoral.
Is our Lord not being pastoral in this situation?
No.
We need to understand that sometimes pastors need to be firm with the flock
when firmness is required.
We remember the example of...
Well, I won't say very often, but every now and then when it was necessary,
he had a brusque and sharp word for his penitence.
And so the gospel explains why our Lord acts in such a way.
Zeal for the Father's house.
He is consumed by zeal for his Father's house.
His house, which should be a house of prayer,
and not a house of commerce.
And inappropriate things.
We have to recognize, as well,
that the church, this sacred place,
this house of God,
there are inappropriate things for the church.
We should not bring the world with us into the church.
The spirit of the world should not enter the Father's house.
But this should be a house of prayer.
Things like immodest address.
Things like this are completely inappropriate for a Christian in general.
How much more is it inappropriate for the Father's house?
Unnecessary talk and chit-chat.
This isn't a meeting hall.
It's a place of prayer.
Silence and recollection.
To have conversation with our Heavenly Father.
Of course, there's also the inevitable celebration
of a cell phone that ends up going off.
So, we should be careful, as well,
to turn off our cell phones before coming into church.
Now, this scene also refers to our own bodies,
our hearts,
which are temples and houses of God.
As our Lord Himself says in the Gospel,
destroy this temple,
and in three days,
I will raise it up.
And He was referring to the temple of His body.
Now, our Lord's body is the temple of God par excellence.
Hypostatically united to the Word of God.
But our body, after baptism,
is also the temple of God.
Remember St. Paul?
I think he was writing to the Corinthians,
exhorting them to avoid sins against chastity.
He says, remember,
you are temples of the Holy Spirit.
Do not defile the temple of the Holy Spirit.
So, our bodies, our hearts,
must also be cleansed.
We should ask our Lord to come into our hearts
with His whip and clean it out.
That is, we need to clean our hearts of sin
and make it a fitting house of God.
And this is particularly appropriate
during this Lenten time of conversion and penance.
When we seek to order our passions
by means of prayer,
penance, the sacraments, and mortification.
So, let's keep this in mind.
The things which are appropriate
and those which are inappropriate
for the house of God, the church.
And also, to cleanse our own hearts,
for God.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.