+Our gospel presents Jesus cleansing the temple where he found those selling oxen, sheep and doves and the money changers. The temple serves well as the place where God resides. It may be a basilica, a symbol of the Church that is going through a lot of cleansing at this time due to the sexual abuse in its midst and it can represent what goes on in each of our own hearts. We all know how easy it is for any of us to become occupied with persons or things in a way that hinders our spiritual growth.
As baptized Christians, Jesus does not allow us to do this for he knows the harm this can do to our Christian life. Our participation here in the Eucharist is inviting him to cleanse the temple of our hearts. To truly enter into what takes place at this altar removes all that stands in the way of our being truly Christian. Just as Jesus spoke of himself as God’s temple, each of us is to be a living temple of God in our society.
There is to flow from us as members of Christ’s Body those living waters of which the prophet Ezekiel speaks in the first reading. Wherever these waters flow, “every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live.. and along its banks, fruit trees of every kind shall grow.”