Third Sunday of Lent

Today's Mass Readings

A popular trend in the culture is minimalism. A whole industry has cropped up around de-cluttering and designing simply: Marie Kondo shows you how to make efficient space and tells you to keep all but thirty books on hand. People construct compact and portable tiny houses – what, when I was growing up, we called trailers… Even your smartphone is a complex machine with diminishing hardware capabilities upon each upgrade. Minimalism is everywhere.

Minimalism has a quasi-religious feel too. Perhaps I’m cynical. I mean, it’s Lent and austerity and almsgiving are key. Plus I’m a monk who gave all to the poor. Minimalism is Christian!

True, simplicity is good. But while actions are important, our motives must also be purified and good! Today we hear about Jesus Cleansing the Temple. You could say this is Christ de-cluttering. It’s so uncharacteristic that we must know what it is and is not. It is not a condemnation of Jewish worship, as both animals for sacrifice and money for maintenance were biblically prescribed. But it was a sign that the worship at the Temple had come to an end. Christ says that the Temple will be destroyed and He will raise it up in three days – speaking of His own body that will become the perfect temple, sacrifice, and ransom for sin.

What is the Cleansing of the Temple, then? It’s restoration of the spirit and truth of the Ten Commandments: to have nothing before true devotion to God. It’s throwing out what deadens desire for the most important things: God and right religion, reconciling sinners as Christ’s ambassadors.

Again, it’s important to know what the Cleansing of the Temple is and is not. Why? Because if de-cluttering our house brings peace then maybe de-cluttering religion might be good too. The problem is this: it can become Christianity without conversion. We might think Catholicism has many hard teachings and rules. I want to go to the church that meets me where I am. There they say, “Hey, do you like fish? We have fish for you.” But that’s about what you already do, what you want.

Christ speaks to those living as they always did about what they need, saying to fishermen, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” He doesn’t say, “Keep all your stuff and follow me,” but rather, leave it and find your destiny.

When the apostles looked back on the Cleansing of the Temple they saw it as an example of Jesus’ zeal. They quoted a psalm about someone in the grip of His enemies who trusts the Lord will deliver him. The psalmist knows that any attempt to defeat human violence on its own terms won’t win, that comforts and pampering won’t save him, but only having no gods before the Lord will do the trick. Lent is not supposed to make us simplify our faith but to purify our commitment to faith.

Reflection Question: We are not going through the Passion of Christ pantomiming, as if we should wonder whether Jesus will rise this year. That perfect sacrifice and its victory over sin and death are complete. So what needs to die and rise in our souls through Jesus’ action so as to be a new creation this Easter?

Reflection by Fr. Pachomius Meade, OSB