In the first reading Judas Maccabeus, the leader of the Jews loyal to their covenant with Yahweh, with joyous celebrations restores proper worship at the Temple in Jerusalem which had been desecrated by invaders.
In the Gospel reading Jesus in anger drives out the merchants who were profaning the House of God with their active trade and business in the Temple area: “My house shall be a house of prayer: but you have turned it into a den of robbers.”
In the longer account in John of Jesus clearing the Temple in Jerusalem, Jesus uses the occasion to predict his resurrection, “‘Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.’ . . . Actually, Jesus was referring to the temple of his body. Only when he had risen from the dead did his disciples remember these words.” (Jn 2: 19 – 22)
By his cleansing of the Temple, Jesus affirmed respect for the House of God, wherein the Holy of Holies, the Ark of the Covenant rested. Enraged, he drove out the merchants selling animals to be sacrificed or given as offering; he overthrew the tables of the money-changers. “Take all this away and stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace.” (Jn 2: 16)
How do we behave in church? How do we dress for church? What respect do we show during Mass and other religious services? Our churches house the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus in our midst as bread. Our churches are God’s house.
