What sign can you show us for doing this?

9 NOVEMBER (Jn 2,13-22)

The Second Book of Maccabees tells us a profound truth about the temple in Jerusalem. When people deny their God, the temple has no longer any reason to exist. In fact, it is the sign of God’s presence among his people. If people are no longer with God, there is also no reason to hold up a sign of this communion of life. It would be true illusion and deception.
When these happenings were reported to the king, he thought that Judea was in revolt. Raging like a wild animal, he set out from Egypt and took Jerusalem by storm. He ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy those whom they met and to slay those who took refuge in their houses. There was a massacre of young and old, a killing of women and children, a slaughter of virgins and infants. In the space of three days, eighty thousand were lost, forty thousand meeting a violent death, and the same number being sold into slavery. Not satisfied with this, the king dared to enter the holiest temple in the world; Menelaus, that traitor both to the laws and to his country, served as guide. He laid his impure hands on the sacred vessels and gathered up with profane hands the votive offerings made by other kings for the advancement, the glory, and the honor of the Place. Puffed up in spirit, Antiochus did not realize that it was because of the sins of the city’s inhabitants that the Lord was angry for a little while and hence disregarded the holy Place. If they had not become entangled in so many sins, this man, like Heliodorus, who was sent by King Seleucus to inspect the treasury, would have been flogged and turned back from his presumptuous action as soon as he approached. The Lord, however, had not chosen the people for the sake of the Place, but the Place for the sake of the people. Therefore, the Place itself, having shared in the people’s misfortunes, afterward participated in their good fortune; and what the Almighty had forsaken in his anger was restored in all its glory, once the great Sovereign became reconciled. (2Mac 5,11-20).
Jesus enters Jerusalem. He sees his Father’s house reduced to a den of thieves. They had made of it a market in the service of worship. However, it was a cult without God and man, because it was without true communion of man’s obedience to his Lord. Worship without obedience is no longer needed. It is a useless ceremony. A vain offering. Even if it we are talking about the Eucharist. This most holy offer to the Father is also often sacrilegious, because it is done in sin, and to consolidate sin.

Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money-changers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” His disciples recalled the words of scripture, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” At this the Jews answered and said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.

As a true prophet Jesus purifies his Father’s house. The Jews ask him for a sign that can attest to the truth of his being from God. Jesus speaks to them in a mysterious, arcane way. He reveals that his body is the true temple of his Father. They will destroy it and He will raise it up in three days. No one understands. However, the prophecy is pronounced. The disciples remember these words after the resurrection of Jesus and open to faith. It is not necessary that we immediately understand the Word of the Gospel. It is important to put it in the heart. Write it in our minds. Then, the day comes when it will grow and produce its many good fruits of charity and hope, joy and peace. That is why it is important to read and meditate on the Gospel. It needs a long time to germinate and bear fruit. What we read today will be understood in a few years. It is important to put the leaven of truth in our body. Then, little by little, it will ferment all our lives.
Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints help us read the Gospel.