Arriving at the Sanctuary of Glory!
THE WORD IN LENT - THIRD SUNDAY
Exodus 20:1-17; 1 Corinthians 1: 22-25; John 2: 13-25
The Mountain: In the first reading we have the reference to the mountain, the mountain where God speaks. One may wonder...but where is the mountain in the passage of the reading! It is in the content - the commandments, the commandments which were given on the mountain, just as Jesus taught his laws in the sermon on the mount. The commandments refer to the special and the peculiar way in which God spoke to Israel; in fact, the commandments made them who they were, the people of the covenant. Jesus chose to build on those commandments and gave his teachings, making of those who believed in him, the People of God, the Church. The mountain is the experience of listening to God, the experience of entering into a relationship with God, the experience of establishing a covenant with the Lord.
The characteristics of the mountain, furnish us with other aspects of the life in God - the do's and don't's, the ethics and mores, the difficulties and challenges, the uphills that demand - that can be summarized in terms of the commandments which are directive at the same time as they are experiential about life. The commandments that we are reminded of, are not merely laws or regulations, but an expression of committed relationship that we wish to enter into with God. This relationship takes us towards the sanctuary, an experience of special rapport with God.
The Sanctuary: In the Gospel, we find Jesus speaking of destroying the sanctuary and reconstructing it in three days. Clearly, obvious today for us, the reference was to himself. That reference is a revolutionary call, not just in the days of Jesus, but even today. In a context today, where there is so much emphasis on the institutionalisation of faith - building or beautifying sanctuaries, investing on structures and focusing on welfare projects - this perspective of Jesus is still prophetic. The person is at the centre of faith. Relationship with God is the crux of faith. It just cannot be structures, systems, empty traditions, or ritual rubrics. Much worse, it cannot be economy, finance and social dominance! It is a choice that we are called to make here, a radical choice of our values and priorities as persons and communities.
Those choices will take us to the real Sanctuary, the holy ground to which we are called - that is, persons and interpersonal respect, community and interpersonal relationships. It is only in the right relationships that the Sanctuary of the Lord is truly built. The persons and the Community of persons are the real sanctuary, the real Church to be built up. We cannot here hide from or bypass a direct critique that the mind of Christ would make on the growing tendency to spend disproportionate finances on building churches and cathedrals, instead of building up the people of God, in love, compassion, justice and truth. The question here is where does our glory lie? Which is that sanctuary of glory that we wish to arrive at... it is truly the Cross. The Cross is our true sanctuary of glory!
The Cross: In the second reading we have St. Paul who proclaims in categorical terms: we preach the Crucified Christ; in Cross is our glory. It may be a sign weakness or scandal for some, a mere slogan for others, but for us it is the power and the wisdom of God! It represents entire grammar of salvation that Christ wished to reveal to us - the grammar of love, sacrifice and total acceptance of persons. That is where our lenten journey should take us: to that sanctuary of glory, to the Cross.
The Cross represents the wisdom of God, the wisdom that offers us a covenant of love, a way of life, a pact which would take us towards glory, if we accept and respect it.
The Cross stands for the power of God, the power of love that sacrifices, gives itself, empties itself and destroys itself, that we may have "the power/the right to be called children of God" (Jn 1:12).
The Cross is the manifestation of the glory of God, the glory which burns with zeal, which fills the earth with that light which would make each one examine his or her own life, throw out the unnecessary accumulations and bring in the Son of God - thus journeying towards salvation, towards freedom, that freedom to which God leads us.