Sunday 8 March 2015

Gospel Third Sunday of Lent (B) March 8, 2015

 Published on 1 Mar 2015

Mid-way to our celebration of the Cross and Easter, we reflect on how we are like the animals, tables and vendors in the temple, interfering with others' finding the Lord. As individuals and as a community, we must repent. But, we are called to more than guilt feelings.


Sunday, 08 March 2015

Third Sunday of Lent - Year B

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 2:13-25.

Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
...
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. .....
                                         

Commentary of the day : 

Origen (c.185-253), priest and theologian 
Commentary on St. John 10,20 


"He was speaking about the temple of his body"


“Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” … In my view, both the temple and Jesus’ body are a symbol of the Church… The temple will be rebuilt and the body will rise on the third day… For the third day will rise in a new heaven and a new earth (2 Pet 3,13) when the dry bones, that is to say the whole house of Israel (Ezek 37,11), will stand up on the great Day of the Lord and death will be vanquished…

Just as the body of Jesus, subject to our vulnerable human condition, was fastened to the cross and buried and then raised up, so the whole body of Christ’s faithful was “fastened to the cross with him” and “now no longer lives” (Gal 2,19). For, like Paul, not one of them glories in anything any longer but in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, which made of him one crucified for the world and made of the world one crucified for him (Gal 6,14)… “For we were buried with Christ,” Paul says, and adds, as if he had received some pledge of the resurrection: “And have been raised to life again with him” (Rom 6:4-9) Everyone is walking in a new life therefore, but this new life is not yet the happy and perfect resurrection… If anyone is now placed in the tomb, one day he will rise again. 
DGO The Daily Gospel


The Station is in the basilica of St. Lawrence outside the walls. The name of this, the most celebrated of the martyrs of Rome, would remind the catechumens that the faith they were about to profess would require them to be ready for many sacrifices. In the primitive Church, the third Sunday in Lent was called Scrutiny Sunday, because it was on this day that they began to examine the catechumens, who were to be admitted to Baptism on Easter night.

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