In last weekend's readings, we heard Moses give the people the Ten Commandments, St. Paul preach Christ crucified, and Jesus' cleansing of the Temple by driving out the sellers and money-changers with a whip made of cords. The drama of Lent is building Sunday by Sunday toward Christ's passion, death and resurrection—can you feel it? In Fr. Mark's homilies, he draws our attention to the fact that the practice of buying and selling animals was not wrong in itself, but that it was encroaching closer and closer to the heart of the temple and of worship. The motives of those involved were wrong. Are our motives correct? Do we have a heart for worship? What needs to be overturned and driven from the temple of our hearts?
Fr. Newton's homily makes a similar comparison: The true house of God is not the temple building, but the hearts of all believers. Zeal for our hearts consumed Jesus and led Him to the cross. He reacted justifiably with anger to what He saw in the temple, and later, He was the one driven out. We must remember that emotions like anger are not inherently wrong, but that our reaction to that emotion can drive Christ from the temple of our hearts.
This weekend, Fr. Mark delivered a short English homily at the Spanish Mass, translated by our bilingual receptionist Rosa Renteria. It is beautiful to listen to God's Word being communicated across the barrier of language. Check it out below.
Listen to last weekend's English and Spanish homilies below.
- Readings in English (USCCB)
- Homily: Fr. Mark Innocenti (Audio)
- Homily: Fr. Arockiya Newton (Audio)
- Lecturas en Español (USCCB)
- Homilia: Padre Mark Innocenti, traducido por Rosa Renteria (Audio)