Year B
Discover the deeper meaning and connections found in this week's readings, through these great commentaries written by our priests.
Explore this week's readings and hear what God is saying to us through His Word.
Find out more about how we can mark this special day in our liturgy.
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St. John the Evangelist sets the scene for our Gospel narrative today. Jesus is proclaimed as the Word of God; he is announced by John the Baptist; his first disciples are called, and he visits Cana to turn water into wine. Then, unlike Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus heads for Jerusalem to ‘cleanse’ the Temple. The other authors place the event as a ‘lead up’ to the Passion narrative, not as a prelude to his ministry as in John’s Gospel.
The Ten Commandments and the word of St. Paul that Jesus is the “power and wisdom of God”, lead us into the Temple scene where Jesus not only cleanses the Temple of the traders but speaks of the destruction of the Temple itself. The visitor to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem will be able to see the ruins following the destruction of the Temple in circa 70 CE, by the Romans, who built it in the first place at the initiative of Herod the Great. When John wrote his Gospel, he would have known that the Temple had been destroyed and that Christians had been thrown out of Jerusalem.
But as Jesus indicates, the Temple’s purpose had ceased. Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Temple did not matter nor did its location. As Jesus spoke of the Temple’s destruction, St. John makes an informative and theological comment. St. John notes that when Jesus speaks of raising the Temple up after three days, he was speaking of the sanctuary of his own body. No surprise then when St. Mark writing much earlier, can say “And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom[1]”.No surprise either when Jesus says to the Woman of Samaria “But the hour is coming – and is now here – when true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth”[2].(Jesus is basically saying that the Jerusalem Temple and the Samaritan Temple on Mount Gerizim – present day Nablus – are redundant).
So where is all this leading? What does it have to do with Lent? What does it have to do with my life as a Christian? How does it help us prepare to celebrate the Paschal Mystery?
Through Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist, each of us, lay and ordained, is a member of the sanctuary which is his body. There follows the responsibility always to respond to our God given dignity of belonging to the Body of Christ, the Church. That response is to be manifested in our becoming the presence and action of the risen Lord through the depth and quality of our love, our compassion, our forgiveness, and our continuing recognition of those in need and our care for them.
As members of the sanctuary, which is his body, we have the key duty to listen to the Word, which Jesus is, proclaimed at Sunday Mass. We have the accompanying duty to give God the Father thanks and praise, in and through Jesus, when we celebrate the Eucharist.
As members of the sanctuary, which is his body, we must do all we can to foster unity, trust, and reconciliation within the body. The Lord’s disciples have a responsibility to avoid anything that smacks of division within the body because it damages our missionary effectiveness. In his words about the Temple, a question is raised in my mind about the importance of buildings. While we need them to gather for worship, they should be signs of our willingness to work together to increase our effectiveness as ‘living stones in the Cathedral of peace’[3]as St. John Paul II put it when he came to Coventry in 1983. We are called to the continuing conversation which leads to the resolution of conflict and to consensus.
[1] Mark 15.38
[2] John 4.23
[3]St. John Paul II’s homily at the Confirmation Mass at Coventry Airport
3rd Sunday in Lent
Catholicism of the Catholic Church References:
CCC 459,577-582: Jesus and the Law
CCC 593, 583-586: Temple prefigures Christ; he is the Temple
CCC 1967-1968: the New Law completes the Old
CCC 272, 550, 853: Christ’s power revealed in the Cross
In Year ‘A’ of the Lectionary, this is the first of three Sundays devoted to the ‘Scrutinies’ celebrated with people preparing for Baptism at Easter (Note that the Scrutiny rites are not celebrated with candidates already baptised and preparing for full reception into the Church).
If there are candidates for Baptism, then the Lectionary for Year ‘A’ must be used, together with the Prayers proper to these rites and the Proper Preface ‘Of the Samaritan Woman.’
The Collect reflects on the ancient teaching that ‘fasting, prayer and almsgiving’ are the ‘remedies for sin.’ Lest our Lenten work has flagged, it reminds us that though conscience accuse us and bows us down, mercy, the divine attribute so prized by Pope Francis, lifts us up again.
As we begin the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the Prayer over the offerings echoes Jesus’ teaching about being reconciled to our brother/sister before bringing our gift to the altar (Matthew 5:23,24). The Prayer after Communion reflects on the Eucharist ‘what is being brought about in us in mystery’ (‘mysterio’ being the eucharistic ritual) being fulfilled in living according to the Gospel (’opere impleatur’).
Perhaps today the First of the Eucharistic Prayers for Masses of Reconciliation might be used.
These hymns have been d chosen from different sources.
Forty Days and Forty nights (CFE185, L2076, LHON264, TCH50)
All my hope on God is founded (CFE21, L959, LHON119, TCH200)
O the word of my Lord (CFE5762, L979, LHON558)
Lead us heavenly Father, lead us (CFE351,L315, LHON416, TCH325)
Guide me, O thou great Redeemer (CFE233, L960, LHON307, TCH 221)
Key
CFE - Celebration Hymnal for Everyone
L – Laudate
LHON – Liturgical Hymns Old and New (Mayhew, 1999)
TCH – The Catholic Hymnbook (Gracewing)
Do you have questions about the liturgy and how we are called to participate in it? Explore how the Church councils, saints, and popes have answered this key question and many more.
Every movement of the Mass is rich in meaning but we can become over-familiar with it. Rediscover the Mass and explore how it relates to the Exodus story, where many of its rituals come from, and how it makes Jesus present to us today.
