Today's
Gospel startles us. When Jesus drove the
money-changers from the temple, was this the same Jesus who forbid anger,
insults, and contempt for others? Is the
Jesus who we see knocking over tables and driving out animals with a whip the
same Jesus who said, "turn the other cheek" and "Love your
enemies"?
Actually,
what Jesus gives us here is an example of how to live out his teaching on
anger. Certainly, anger is a source of
much evil. But this means chronic anger
which distorts our attitudes and infects our behavior. This happens when we let our anger grow in
us. In itself, anger is just a natural
reaction that is part of our human nature.
There is no fault at all in feeling angry, any more than in feeling
hungry or cold or scared. Like every emotion,
anger can be put to good or bad use. Today,
Jesus shows us how to use anger as an expression of love.
Jesus' anger
in the temple showed how much he cared about people, and it was directed to
bringing about a change of heart. Jesus
didn't insult the merchants. By quoting
Scripture to them, he acknowledged their faith and the bond he had with them as
fellow Jews. By saying they had turned
God's house into a den of thieves, he was not saying they were bad people, but
reminding them that they were called to be good. By expressing the anger he felt, Jesus was
trying to show people that what they were doing was bad, so that they would
change.
Jesus was
not a man who stood meekly by and let evil go unchallenged. He didn't use violence to overcome evil, but
he did take forceful measures against it.
The gentleness and respectful love of enemies he teaches is not an excuse
to stand by and do nothing about evil.
It is a call to risk speaking the truth and even to accept dying
ourselves in an effort to bring people together in love and peace.
Jesus' angry actions might make some of us
uncomfortable. We might describe the Jesus in today's Gospel as "the
muscular Jesus." Sometimes the gentle images of Jesus make him seem too
soft. But today's depiction shows us how Jesus could ruffle the Temple staff
and cause the Romans to begin to wonder about him. The Jesus we heard about a
few weeks ago who reached out and touched the leper, is the same one who
wrestled with Satan in the desert and won. This is also the Jesus who will
accept and bear his cross.
Which one are we most like, the meek and
humble Jesus or the muscular Jesus? I
expect that most of us relate better to the meek and humble Jesus and that we
wouldn't want to confront or argue with someone about issues of faith. But, it has been said that all it takes for
evil to win is for good men to do nothing.
In the film, Jerry Maguire, Tom Cruise says
several times: "Show me the money." If we
follow the money, it will often lead us to evil. If we follow the money in today's Gospel, we
find God's house being turned into a noisy place of trade.
Today, if we follow the money in the abortion
industry, we find a big, profitable business which promotes barbaric procedures
to dismember babies in the womb. If we
follow the money in child trafficking, we find children being used for forced
labor, domestic and construction work, child soldiers, and sexual
exploitation. If we follow the money on
the internet, we find that one of eight on-line searches is for pornography and
that internet porn is estimated at 3 billion dollars. If we follow the money in end of life care,
we find lobbying for euthanasia or so-called right to die which is driven by a
desire to avoid the expense of caring for a person at the end of his or her
life.
How would Jesus react to these money changers
in today's marketplace? I expect that he
would be angry and would do everything in his power to throw them out. He would not sit idly by and watch these evil
practices. He loves us too much for
that.
And what does Jesus expect us to do about
these modern day money changers?
Certainly he wants us to pray for their conversion. But, what else can we do? Is it time for us to follow the money and put
an end to these evils? Is it time for
us, like Jesus, to throw these merchants our of our communities, our homes and our
hospitals? Let us follow Jesus' example
and show these money changers our righteous anger.
