Let’s Keep Our ‘House of God’ Holy
Friends,
Today in the Gospel, we see Jesus cleansing the temple. Jesus tells us that the House of God is a holy place, and that is why he drove out those who desecrated the temple with buying and selling. What does this mean to us? Here are a couple of reflections:
1. Our little church of St. John the Baptist on San Pablo Avenue is also the “House of God.” We Catholics believe that God dwells in our church. We Catholics believe that in the tabernacle, the Body of Christ resides in a very special way. We have a lighted candle near the tabernacle to remind us of God’s living presence in our church. When we come into our church, we reverence the tabernacle by either genuflecting (going down on one knee) or bowing before the Lord. This is how we reverence the tabernacle and reverence our church as the “House of God.”
2. In the course of our services, our church gets messy. We imitate Jesus in cleansing the temple when we do our share to keep our church clean and neat. I am very proud of the people who clean the church on Saturday mornings and the ushers who pick up after the 12:30 Mass on Sundays. However, we all should do our share to keep God’s house clean and presentable.
3. We are proud of our church and our services to honor and praise God. Therefore, we do not hesitate to invite friends and neighbors to come to our church and worship with us. This past week, we were blessed to have Mark Price and the Salesian High School Mystery Players help us spend Lent in a more prayerful mood……..We love our church as the House of God on San Pablo Avenue, and we thank God for allowing us to be a part of this holy place.
I received an e-mail from Sr. Denise, and she is struggling with a bout of malaria. This disease is very, very common in Haiti. Please pray for her and her sisters. Likewise, she told me that the town of Baraderes had been flooded with recent rains. This just adds to the poverty of the good people in the town next to our sister parish.
Peace,
Fr. John Maxwell
