3RD Sunday of Lent, 2018

An Appointment with God, Are you Ready for Self-Donation?
Exodus 20:1-17; 1 Corinthians 1:22-25; John 2:13-25

Women seem to be better than men, when it comes to appointments; not necessarily in keeping appointments, but in preparing for appointments. They always want to look good on their appointment day, they get the house cleaned up and out; if need be, they make their hair and wear their make up, and, of course, they make sure that there is food for their guest(s) or they take something along for their host, should the rendezvous be away from their home.

A typical woman’s preparations for a rendezvous can help our understanding of today’s readings. For example, from the ordeals of a Joseph sold into slavery in Egypt by his own brothers because of his dreams and predictions, the story of the Israelites’ sojourn in Egypt followed. From the Joseph who went from being slave, prisoner and second-in-command in Egypt, to another generation of Jews who became slaves in Egypt, comes God’s initiative to free his people from slavery. The Jewish people became slaves in Egypt, after the rise of a Pharaoh “who didn’t know Joseph”. An “appointment” was then set by God to set Israel free from slavery in Egypt; freedom was promised the Jews, through the leadership of Moses. The Jews went from having Egyptians as their task-masters and Pharaoh as their king, to a new leadership system – theocracy, God’s leadership of his people.

The rendezvous or appointment of God with Israel was premised on their suffering and slavery. God went in search of Israel because their cry for liberation reached him. Sufferings of all kinds draw God’s attention and demand God’s appointment and intervention. In biblical terms, God “visits” anyone undergoing suffering, oppression and rejection and brings liberation and lasting respite. God’s appointment with Israel was the beginning of a new relationship between Israel and God. God visited and set Israel free on the day he visited them in Moses. Moses was the man in whom God visited his people. The liberation that God brings to those suffering or in difficulties passes through a human agent, who acts in the name of God.

Today, through the Ten Commandments, God signs a marriage code between himself and Israel. The original appointment to liberate Israel from slavery turns romantic, today God weds Israel, and indeed, every human being. The very first sentence of the marriage code of God and Israel presents the origin of God’s love relationship with Israel – “I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery” (Ex 20:1). It was Israel that cried out to God and he heard and rescued Israel. The salvafic action of God in the life of Israel catalyzed the desire for a long time commitment between Israel and God. Israel that lived by a different set of rules prior to this new relationship has to learn the language of fidelity and tread the path of obedience to God.

Just like a woman getting ready for her appointments/rendezvous, prior to their rendezvous with God (Ex 19), the Israelites washed themselves clean and abstained from sexual intercourse as signs of holiness and purity. Moses and Aaron went up the mountain of God, and Moses received the Ten Commandments. The first four commandments deal with how human beings are to relate to God, and the other six deal with inter-human relationships. Curious enough, God took the initiative to enter into this relationship with human beings, but there is no human participation to the covenant. God gives the commandments to human beings but there are no requirements or expectations from the side of human beings. No commandment carries a punishment for its infringement, but one commandment (Ex 20:12) carries a blessing – honor your parents.

It may appear that God does punish the sinner! Indeed, he does, but he says “inflicting punishment for their fathers’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation; but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Ex 20:5-6). Those are terms of past covenants, that was God’s covenants with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The signs of those covenants are slaughtered animals to symbolize how those who back out of them will be slaughtered. On the contrary, these Ten Commandments are God’s gifts to Israel on their wedding day (a map for lovers); a day of blessings and not curses; a day of joy and not sadness; a future premised on benediction and protection.

God’s appointments are gratuitous visitations not punitive encounters. Every appointment initiated by God comes with a blessing and not a malediction. To have an appointment with God is to be in a state of need for which God alone can intervene and make right. Indeed, for God to visit anyone, he needs an invitation from us. Our invitation letter to God are our plights and ills, our sufferings and situations of casualty of an unjust system. God sees and feels with us the yokes we carry and the burdens that we bear. It is the compassion of God that makes him reach out to those in need and on the margins of the goodness God wishes to see among and in his creatures.

When we look into our lives, our infidelities to the Ten Commandments stare us in the face. When we watch the news, gory images of human inhumanities make us blush. Political and economic commentaries make us aware of the decay in our moral fabric. Despite all these, God hasn’t destroyed the world yet! “If you keep a record of our iniquities O Lord, who will survive?” asks the Psalmist. These are pointers to the meaning of the Ten Commandments, not curses but maps for blessings, and permanent representatives of God’s compassion and love. But what about our iniquities?

Today, Jesus’ journey to the Temple in Jerusalem and his cleansing of the Temple teach us an important lesson about the meaning of charity. The animals meant for sacrifices or charity to God at the Temple became opportunities for commerce and not for the worship of God – “Inside the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there” (Jn 2:14). What is worship after all, if not “the human response to God’s beneficence”? To offer sacrifice to God is to give something to God as a sign of gratitude to God or as a motif/pretext for receiving something from God. The consciousness to worship God is borne out of our recognition of being recipients of God’s compassion and blessing. Different animal sacrifices, in the Old Testament, conveyed human gratitude to God and implored more blessings and forgiveness of sins. In Jesus’ visit to the Temple, he noticed that animals had replaced human beings inside the Temple; so, Jesus chased out the animals to make room for human beings in the Temple of God. It is worth mentioning that no human being in the temple was flogged or walloped by Jesus, only animals were driven out and bureau-de-change tables overturned, human persons were respected and the Templed cleared for them to worship God – “my house shall be called a house of prayer!”

Moreover, Jesus’ instruction “destroy this Temple” is the message of this third Sunday of Lent. When the human heart is overrun by sin, it is high time Jesus visited it to cleanse it – “destroy this Temple” – not by flogging and walloping, but by discovering the true meaning of worship. To “worship God” is to turn out the filth of our lives and to build a temple for God in our hearts – “you’re the temples of the Holy Spirit,” Paul would say. All the ill-gotten wealth we have accumulated, the crave for power and influence, the wagging and calumnious tongue, the sadistic mind and eye, all these need expunging.

According to the gospel of today, economic sense trumped the wisdom of God. The creation of business empires and power accruing from trade are held in more esteem that the knowledge of God and the worship of God. Little wonder Paul talks about the foolishness of God as wiser than human wisdom, in the second reading. God’s wisdom comes to human beings through God’s commandments, but human beings prefer economic and financial sense to wisdom. The marriage of God to Israel was to draw Israel into the knowledge and wisdom of God. What made and makes Israel wise is the possession of God’s commandments. In the New Testament, according to Paul, the wisdom of God is found in the cross of Jesus Christ. Why? because animal sacrifices have come to an end, Jesus, a human being, is the sacrificial lamb of God. This is the reason why Jesus went to the temple, to substitute for animal sacrifice, to take the place of slaughtered animals and become “the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” This is the peak of charity, when one gives oneself instead of what one possesses. Self-gift is the highest form of gift – “greater love than this no one has, to lay down ones life for one’s friends”.

The Passover animals all prepared the way for the ultimate Passover, when Jesus Christ will substitute for animals and become the self-donation to God for the salvation of the world. This is why marriage captures well the meaning of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments reveal that the marriage of God to his people anticipates the power of love that makes God die for his children. Why marriage? Marriage is the gift of self to the other. The beautiful temple of Jerusalem where sacrifices were offered disappears from the scene and the temple of the human body becomes the offering which God desires and looks for – “for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part”.

If God gives laws without curses in the Ten Commandments, he now shows greater love because he died for sins against his love. If Israel was reminded of her liberation from Egypt as the reason for the Ten Commandments, we are reminded today that the purest worship of God passes through the human body. And, this purest worship of God is – “I was hungry, you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, you gave me to drink. . . .” Charity builds the new temple of God, the body of Christ, the Church. If Jesus chases out animals from the temple and overturns the tables of money changers, you and I are the purifiers of God’s temple today, and God’s temple is my body, it is your body.

Only when the temple of human wisdom devoid of God is destroyed can there be hope for a resurrection on the third day, on Easter Day, on the Last Day. It is with the embrace of the foolishness of the cross of Christ that life eternal is guaranteed. When the body is offered up in living sacrifice to God, then the reward of charity can be obtained. Yes, all these need preparation like a woman going to keep her appointment; yes, Lent is the preparatory period for this appointment; an appointment with God, are you ready with your works of charity, charity as self-donation and self-immolation?

Today is our appointment day to free ourselves and others from the shackles of fornication or adultery making us breakers of the sixth commandment and champions of infidelity. Today is our appointment day to liberate ourselves from slavery to alcoholism, pornographic additions, pecuniary attachments to kleptocratic friends and leaders. Today is freedom day and you and I are God’s agents and instruments for the integral liberation of all those oppressed either by sin or humanly invented systems. You and I are God’s messengers of love and peace, in situations of war and hatred; we are God’s messiahs to those who are afflicted and condemned to the margins of society; we are the helpers of those priests, sisters and missionaries who can hardly feed or make ends meet, while working for the kingdom of God. Yes, our aged/senior members in need of visitation and support need us; our acquaintances whose good works are forgotten because they are marred in accusations/controversies and abuses and sins of all kinds abandoned to themselves need our shoulders to lean on. Indeed, a gesture of love to the good, the bad and the ugly can help some wear a smile today – how hard is that?

Assignment for the Week:
Could you devote some hours of your time in voluntary charity service this week?