Memorial of Saint Andrew Dung-Lac, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs
My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves (Lk 19:46). At the heart of today’s gospel is Jesus coming into the temple and cleaning house. He proceeded to drive them out with the words above, referencing Old Testament scripture from Isaiah and Jeremiah. The irony of this gospel falling on the infamous US non-holiday tradition of ‘Black Friday’ and the day after Thanksgiving is not lost on me either. Along with schools, many businesses and organizations are closed this weekend for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Many of us have gathered or will be gathering with family or friends to feast and socialize. In addition, many will start their Christmas shopping and start decorating their homes (if they haven’t already) prior to the beginning of the season of advent. A friend of mine shared a beautiful reflection on Thanksgiving that she wrote for a recent newsletter. Many of us are familiar with the cheesy imagery of pilgrims and Native Americans coming together to have a bountiful feast; but there is also much more to the history of Thanksgiving and, I believe, important for us to consider in light of cleansing the Temple.
I am never able to read this gospel without singing the common childhood song: Clean-up! Clean-up! Everybody, everywhere. Clean-up! Clean-up! Everybody do your share. Jesus goes into the temple, the center of Jewish life and meaning at that time, and rips the place apart. Why? It was dirty; it needed cleaning. The temple was intended to be a sacred and holy place; a house of prayer and a place of welcome for all people. Instead, it had become a location of deception and worldly consumption--money changers, vendors--detractors from the spiritual life. The temple had become “a den of thieves”. Similarly, we are called to be sacred spaces of prayer in our very being. We are called to be saints. We are called to holiness.
The spirit of God dwells in each one of us; we are meant to be a temple of the holy spirit. What is my den of thieves? How do I hide from God? What do I tend to put my trust in rather than my faith and the work of God in my life? What shape is my soul in? If I let Christ in, what might he be able to clean out? Let us walk away from the darkness of a cluttered temple; drive out the darkness and let the light shine in and prepare our hearts for the love of Christ to shine through our actions. As my friend Rachel suggests, take a moment to remember those who lost much in the formation of our country, how we might be instruments of peace, and pray for our Good and loving God to clean our house; make it a house of prayer–a place of peace and thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Brandon Meyer