Father Koch: Jesus challenges us to upset the moneychangers in our lives
March 3, 2021 at 11:15 p.m.
It is interesting that the Church sets in juxtaposition for our consideration on the Third Sunday of Lent the giving of the Decalogue to Moses and then the account of Jesus as he throws the moneychangers out of the Temple.
Hearing anew the Decalogue read to us reminds us of the ideals with which we ought to be living our lives. It causes an immediate examination of conscience, and serves as a challenge for us to deepen our Lenten journey by making a good Confession and reorienting our lives toward the Lord.
When we listen to the Commandments being proclaimed each one of us hears them in a slightly different way. There are particular sins that strike our hearts. Perhaps some unresolved sin from the distant past, or a more recent sin that has grasped hold of us and is bringing disruption even now to our relationship with the Lord, causing us stress and discord in our daily lives.
Often we pass over the first three Commandments and focus instead on the middle five; Commandments four through eight as we number them. For most of us, these are the Commandments that we are prone to think as most important, and they dominate both our examen and our Confession. The last two seem to be more obscure – the experience of covetousness, while very real, demands a higher level of self-reflection and awareness. Yet, these two stand at the very heart of our propensity to sin, what we call concupiscence.
As Jesus enters the Temple precincts he is immediately struck by the profiteering on the part of the officials at the Temple. They would only accept the Temple currency for the purchase of the animals and grains for sacrifice, so the people had to exchange their Roman coins for Temple coins. Of course, the moneychangers set the price for the exchange and you can be pretty certain it wasn’t based on a one-to-one ratio. While on the surface requiring the use of Temple coins seems innocent enough – we are all used to purchasing tokens and chits for arcades and casinos for example – it is the duplicity of profiting on the religious requirements of the faithful that is so objectionable to Jesus. Instead of serving as a means by which the faithful could offer sacrifice, the inflated costs became an excessive burden to the poor and an opportunity to fleece the rich.
In his action at the Temple Jesus draws our attention to those first three Commandments.
One of the challenges that hit us in our consumable society is to treat our religious faith as another consumable commodity. Like many gadgets, clothing and accessories that we buy and then either never open or consign to the depths of a drawer or closet, religious faith is just another thing, another tag that we carry with us. When it is convenient or might look good or useful we bring it out and show if off, but otherwise, it gathers dust and cobwebs.
We also seem inclined to easily switch our religious “affiliation,” whether it be a parish or denomination, when we it seems expedient, and not because of an authentic conversion of mind or heart. In this way we treat our religion as we do a store when we find a better deal elsewhere or we were not happy with customer service.
Our faith is not another tag or label we wear on the outside, it is part of the depth of our character, a communication between ourselves and God and marked by our participation in the life of faith and a community of believers.
In expelling the money changers from the Temple Jesus warns us against commodifying our faith, taking advantage of the religious needs and sensibilities of others, and using faith primarily for our convenience.
What do we owe to God but the very best of who we are and what we have? The Laws of Moses mandate the choicest portions be given to the Lord and then to the priest offering the sacrifice. When we treat our faith like any other commodity in our lives, we then make our religious practice one of more mockery than sincerity. Our Lenten challenge here is to prioritize the Lord as the first and foremost in our lives and to right our relationship with the Lord and the Church.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.
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It is interesting that the Church sets in juxtaposition for our consideration on the Third Sunday of Lent the giving of the Decalogue to Moses and then the account of Jesus as he throws the moneychangers out of the Temple.
Hearing anew the Decalogue read to us reminds us of the ideals with which we ought to be living our lives. It causes an immediate examination of conscience, and serves as a challenge for us to deepen our Lenten journey by making a good Confession and reorienting our lives toward the Lord.
When we listen to the Commandments being proclaimed each one of us hears them in a slightly different way. There are particular sins that strike our hearts. Perhaps some unresolved sin from the distant past, or a more recent sin that has grasped hold of us and is bringing disruption even now to our relationship with the Lord, causing us stress and discord in our daily lives.
Often we pass over the first three Commandments and focus instead on the middle five; Commandments four through eight as we number them. For most of us, these are the Commandments that we are prone to think as most important, and they dominate both our examen and our Confession. The last two seem to be more obscure – the experience of covetousness, while very real, demands a higher level of self-reflection and awareness. Yet, these two stand at the very heart of our propensity to sin, what we call concupiscence.
As Jesus enters the Temple precincts he is immediately struck by the profiteering on the part of the officials at the Temple. They would only accept the Temple currency for the purchase of the animals and grains for sacrifice, so the people had to exchange their Roman coins for Temple coins. Of course, the moneychangers set the price for the exchange and you can be pretty certain it wasn’t based on a one-to-one ratio. While on the surface requiring the use of Temple coins seems innocent enough – we are all used to purchasing tokens and chits for arcades and casinos for example – it is the duplicity of profiting on the religious requirements of the faithful that is so objectionable to Jesus. Instead of serving as a means by which the faithful could offer sacrifice, the inflated costs became an excessive burden to the poor and an opportunity to fleece the rich.
In his action at the Temple Jesus draws our attention to those first three Commandments.
One of the challenges that hit us in our consumable society is to treat our religious faith as another consumable commodity. Like many gadgets, clothing and accessories that we buy and then either never open or consign to the depths of a drawer or closet, religious faith is just another thing, another tag that we carry with us. When it is convenient or might look good or useful we bring it out and show if off, but otherwise, it gathers dust and cobwebs.
We also seem inclined to easily switch our religious “affiliation,” whether it be a parish or denomination, when we it seems expedient, and not because of an authentic conversion of mind or heart. In this way we treat our religion as we do a store when we find a better deal elsewhere or we were not happy with customer service.
Our faith is not another tag or label we wear on the outside, it is part of the depth of our character, a communication between ourselves and God and marked by our participation in the life of faith and a community of believers.
In expelling the money changers from the Temple Jesus warns us against commodifying our faith, taking advantage of the religious needs and sensibilities of others, and using faith primarily for our convenience.
What do we owe to God but the very best of who we are and what we have? The Laws of Moses mandate the choicest portions be given to the Lord and then to the priest offering the sacrifice. When we treat our faith like any other commodity in our lives, we then make our religious practice one of more mockery than sincerity. Our Lenten challenge here is to prioritize the Lord as the first and foremost in our lives and to right our relationship with the Lord and the Church.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.