Ex 20:1-17
Ps 19
I Cor 1:22-25
Jn 2:13-25
The readings for today’s Mass are rich. Each could be the text for a long homily. Each tells us about God. The God of Exodus is not a God of relativism, a God of accommodation, negotiation, or adaptation to social trends.
The Ten Commandments are short. They are to the point. They prohibit Adultery. Killing. And Stealing, to name a few thou shalt nots. They demand love for God and one’s neighbor. Thou shalt not kill does not exclude abortion
because it is QUOTE delivery of women’s health care UNQUOTE.
“Honor thy father and mother" does make allowance for asking physician to prescribe death for mom or dad because their lives are perceived to have no meaning; or the inheritance is running out.
While the prohibition against adultery should be self-evident, it doesn't take long
wading in the moral swamp of modern American life to get the idea that it is frequently ignored and accepted as a part of life.
The second chapter of John‘s Gospel is 25 verses long and includes and one massive shift in scene. In the space between the end of verse 12 and the beginning of today's reading with verse 13, we move from the wedding at Cana
to the Temple at Jerusalem.
The challenge of this gospel reading is that we are forced to confront our notions
of who Jesus is and, perhaps with greater difficulty, how Jesus acts. This is not a warm and fuzzy scene. For those for whom zeal for God’s house is a sometimes thing or depends current social fads, it is an uncomfortable confrontation. Like the God of the Old testament, The Jesus of the gospels is not a Jesus of relativism, accommodation, negotiation, or a man who adapts to social trends, "Oh, c'mon Jesus, everybody is selling animals in the Temple these days." Or, "Keep your religion out of my life." Or, "My body, my self."
The Jesus of the gospels is the Jesus who challenged political authorities. but he also challenged social trends: adultery, divorce and extortion. The Jesus of the gospels called a spade a spade. The Jesus of the gospels did not cave into secularist society. The Jesus of the gospels would not tolerate the desecration of His Father’s house, unlike some idiot at St. Patrick’s a few weeks ago when a group of trannies, who are beneath contempt, desecrated it in the course of a so-called funeral.
The scene of Jesus overturning tables in the Temple and driving out the money changers with a whip, bothers some people. They are bothered because Jesus is not gentle, or affirming, or negotiating. He is angry and acting on that anger.
It is unlikely that the Jesus of this gospel would sanction and bless immoral relationships, even if that blessing was given “spontaneously” whatever that might mean.
The late Jesuit Father Stanley Marrow, commented on this reading. “One puzzling aspect is how generation after generation can hear this account and persist in clinging to their cherished image of Jesus. . . an image of Jesus so “gentle and mild” as to be incapable of overthrowing anything, not even the reader’s smugness. . . . The Jesus in this or any other gospel is not a standard-bearer for bleeding hearts. The aim of the Gospel is not to provide us with the biography of an inspiring hero, proportioned to the size of our ambitions, conformed to our ideals, and meeting our notions of what constitutes greatness.” Perhaps Stanley might have included he was not a standard bearer for political correctness.
Without zeal for God’s house the Church cannot exist. Without zeal for God's house, we might as well simply stay in bed on Sunday and watch the shopping channel or reruns of Oprah. Only zeal for God's house, only time dedicated to prayer and contemplation on the gospel, will allow us to realize the fundamental truth given in the psalm.
“The law of the Lord is perfect,
refreshing the soul;
The decree of the Lord is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart,
the command of the lord is clear,
enlightening the eye."
The Lord does, indeed, have the words to everlasting life.
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One of the fascinating aspects of photography is the relationship between light and shadow. Without the shadow light means very little.
Sunrise at Cohasset, MA 
My lunch at a monastery in Slovenia. The rose was icy cold, made on the grounds. The bread is "borek" a stuffed bread that I ate whenever possible. 
A still life at a monastery of nuns. 
Votive lights at the Cathedral in Lyon, France.
Fr. Jack, SJ, MD
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