My Jewish friends would groan if they ever saw the title for this scripture reflection, because they tell me Christians make way more of Hanukkah than even Jews do.  It has come to be called the "Jewish Christmas" so that their kids don't feel left out of all the commercial hoopla -  but, as my friends tell me, Hanukkah has traditionally been a rather minor holiday, especially by comparison to Passover or Rosh Hoshanna.  

 

Perhaps you, too, are groaning as you read the title for this scripture reflection.  "It's not even Thanksgiving yet," I can almost hear people complaining.  "Let's not get into Advent until it's actually Advent."

 

So let me just say: this reflection isn't about extolling some kind of 'Jewish Christmas" nor is it about trying to preempt Thanksgiving. But as we near the end of one Christian year and look toward beginning another, the scriptures naturally point us toward preparing for the end of the year as well as for a new beginning.  Just as with the secular calendar, we reflect on what has happened and look ahead to what possibilities are to come, so too at the end of the Christian year, we have an opportunity to reflect on our relationship with Christ to this point, and look ahead to new possibilities in that relationship.  Today's scriptures help us do just this.

 

Today's Old Testament (1 Maccabees 4:36-37, 52-59) is part of the text on which the Jewish festival of Hanukkah is based.  The Maccabees have defeated the Macedonian Empire (which you may know better as the empire of Alexander the Great) and they are now celebrating their ability to worship God freely and rightly, by rededicating the temple to God and observing eight days of celebration.  The people are commanded to observe these eight days year after year; hence, the modern-day observation of Hanukkah, which lasts for eight days.  (As a side note: 1 Maccabees is not considered part of holy scripture in contemporary Judaism, which is why Hanukkah is seen as a more minor, historical feast than a feast of great religious significance.)  

 

The focus of the Old Testament reading is on making the temple once again a good place to worship God, and the people succeed.  They work hard to prepare it to be a holy space, and as in many stories in the Old Testament, it looks like God's side has "won".  

 

So, the gospel reading (Luke 19:45-48) is jarring, by contrast.  This passage is set roughly 170 years after 1 Maccabees, but Jesus finds that the temple is once again profaned. Notice where Jesus puts the blame though: it is not on the Gentiles, as it was in the Maccabees' day, but it is on the Jewish people themselves.  By selling things, the people have made the temple a marketplace rather than a place of prayer.  The gospel reminds us that even when it looks like God's people are winning, it is entirely possible that some other sin is creeping in.  The Jews won the war against the Macedonian Empire, but they didn't see the encroachment of a marketplace mentality into a place meant for prayer and worship.

 

Pope Francis has cautioned us, often, to likewise not allow a marketplace mentality cause us to forget to see the people around us, people in need of mercy. Pope Francis worries (especially in Laudato Si') that our focus on making successful businesses has created places in the world where people who are poor have very little access to food and clean water. In the US, a marketplace mentality that sees food largely as cheap commodities may also be making us sicker: cheap fast food and convenience store food creates many health problems like diabetes, precisely for people that can typically only afford this kind of food. The corporal works of mercy ask us precisely to SEE - especially to feed the hungry with food that sustains and nourishes. 

 

So as we reflect on the end of a year and the beginning of another, let us reflect on what went well - those times when we did follow God's call to us.  But let us also be mindful of all the possible times we did not hear God calling, especially the call to do corporal works of mercy.  It is only in the midst of recognizing the times we have failed (even despite our best efforts) that we can allow Jesus into our lives.  Just as he swept the temple clean, may he sweep each of our own bodies (our human temples of God) clean so that we can be faithful disciples in the new Christian year.

 

- Jana M. Bennett