The Heart's Marketplace

Scripture Reflection for the Third Sunday of Lent (March 8, 2015)

Scripture Readings:
Exodus 20:1-17
Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 11
1 Corinthians 1:22-25
John 2:13-25

“Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace,” Jesus says to the vendors and moneychangers. The Temple—the place where people went to meet and worship God—had been overcrowded by obstacles to a true encounter with God. Recognizing this, Jesus not only drove out the vendors and moneychangers, but also overturned their tables, sent out the livestock, and spilled their coins! This is a noisy, change-filled scene.

When we look at our hearts, at the internal place where we meet God, we often find clutter blocking us from encounter. What is it that we need to let Jesus clear away in us in order to meet God as our free and authentic selves, unencumbered by fears or expectations?

In the first reading, we hear the listing of the Ten Commandments. From our early days of catechism, we are asked to memorize and abide by this list. God does not impose these laws as whimsical obligations to uphold; rather, this law sets the Hebrew people apart from other ancient societies by calling them to establish new norms that will govern their relationships with God and others. As the psalmist reminds us, the law of the Lord “refreshes the soul,” “rejoices the heart,” and is “sweeter than the syrup or honey from the comb.”

In order to encounter God and be in right relationship with God and other people, we are called beyond the norms of the world. In the first letter of the people of Corinth, St. Paul reminds us just how foolish proclamations of Jesus may have seemed; nevertheless, the “foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom.” God’s ways do not fit human standards or expectations.

As people of faith, we are called to see how coming to a true encounter with God may differ with the expectations of society. After all, the marketplace in the temple area had become the status quo and may have even been seen as facilitating coming to worship God. We also have aspects of our lives that, when we look beyond their superficial benefits, we recognize as hindrances in our relationship with God. This meditation comes from a personal reflection on how my need to always be busy (business being an unspoken yet highly appreciated value in our society) keeps me from coming to the place of interior silence where God faithfully awaits me. I may be seen as effective in the eyes of others, but my internal temple is cluttered by my desire to be seen as important and my impatience towards situations I cannot control.

This week, we are called to reflect on how St. Paul’s assertion that “the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom,” plays out in our own lives. What is Jesus clearing out in us to bring us to a closer encounter with God? How can following God’s desires for us, God’s law in our hearts, be refreshing to our soul? During this Lenten season, we sit with these questions, open to conversion and change with the confidence of the psalmist: “Lord, you have the words of everlasting life!”

Image: Money Money Money by James Cridland found on Flickr under the Creative Commons License