Third Sunday of Lent
God gave Moses the ten commandments to guide the people to a way of holiness. The ten commandments were not meant as a set of rules to follow, but they are a way of life. Jesus, who came to fulfill the law, did not amend the commandments but rather he clarified God’s intent when He said that the two greatest commandments were to love God with your whole heart, your whole mind, and with all your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. The first three commandments are directed to love of God and the next seven commandments are directed to love of neighbor.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus expels the money changers from the Temple. Why was Jesus so upset with them? His righteous anger had to do with the burden that was placed upon the people to have their sins forgiven and the process of purchasing animal offerings to be burned in the Temple as an offering for sin.
Jesus is the only mediator between God the Father and humankind. Through His passion and death on the cross we have forgiveness of sins available to us and reconciliation with God. It is for this reason, that Scripture tells to rend our hearts and not our garments. God seeks people who will thirst for humility and in that humility seek the mercy of God to be upon them.
Paul tells us that, “we proclaim Christ crucified”. The cross of Jesus becomes the cross of life to those who believe. Reparation for our sins was won on Good Friday once for all and we are the recipients of a loving and merciful God.
When we pass from this life and stand in the presence of Jesus, all our sins in this lifetime will be made known to us. We will be judged, not by our failures but we will be judged by how much we love God and our neighbor.
Lent is the time when we turn away from sin in our lives and embrace the cross of Jesus as our hope and salvation. It is also a time when we embrace each other and make a conscience effort to love our brothers and sisters with the love that God has given us.
Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. We cannot dwell on the past because we no longer live in the past, we cannot dwell on the future because it is not yet here, we live in the present and we need to be present to God and to each other right here and right now.
May God continue to bless you,
Deacon Phil