THE TASK: CLEANSE
21st March
This is the day that the conflict between the Jews and Jesus erupted to its peak. Jesus enters the Temple and begins to cleanse it! The zeal for his Father's House set him afire, and his disciples were obviously enthused about it. Against the background of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem the previous day, the disciples thought it was the beginning of some kind of a revival of Israel. They never imagined that would be the beginning of the end of Jesus' life! Jesus himself would soon become a victim of the evil social order, that Jesus picks the whip against today.
The task entrusted to us today is to Cleanse... as Jesus cleanses the temple!
We are called to cleanse our lives, cleanse our social lives of the unjust order, cleanse our family life of unholy priorities, cleanse our personal lives of sordid impurities.
The Merciful Shepherd wishes to carry us through from darkness to light, from sin to salvation, from death to new life...provided we allow ourselves to be carried. Cleansing is saying 'yes' to the Lord, allowing the Lord to carry us, choosing to be transformed and built once more into the Holy Dwelling Place of God!
The readings point to us the thickening plot, where the Jews intensely turn against Jesus and everything that is connected to Jesus. They find Jesus as challenging their very existence and they cannot wait to get rid of him. But the Beloved Son of God is upto his duty, come what may!