Where is home for You?

Friday in the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle I

1 Mc 6, 1-13; Lk 20, 27-40

We all cherish our home. Even the very word "home" evokes feelings of warmth and welcoming. We often ask each other, "Where is home for you?" Not just, "Where do you live?" or "Where are you from?" But something much deeper. It is not just a location, but it is a place - a very particular and specific - one at that.

The Jews, we know, built the temple to be the dwelling place for God, the place where God can be at home with his people and the place where the people can be at home with their God. In today's first reading we have a reading from the first book of Maccabees, which, as we know, is one of the historical books along with the books of Samuel, Judges and others. They are called historical because they recount the history of the People of Israel from a theological perspective. In today's reading we have the re-consecration of this temple after it was profaned by the Gentiles. We can be shocked when we hear phrases such as "now that the enemies are crushed" and "the disgrace of the Gentiles was removed." However it only shows us the long journey that our own faith has passed through. It was believed that the temple is only the dwelling place of God and of his people, the Gentiles are not part of the people of God, therefore it is not their house.

When we turn to the Gospel, we are struck by a very sharp contrast. First of all we must remember that Luke was writing not to the Jews as Mark and Matthew did, but to the Gentiles, that is, to the Greeks and the Romans, because he wanted to show them that they too are called to salvation. Secondly, we notice that Jesus "crushes his enemies" and "removes the disgrace" from the temple, to use the same words of the book of Maccabees. However, this time it is not the Gentiles that he drives out, but those "who were selling things" (note how Luke is careful not to single them as Jews).

Following the resurrection, as we have said elsewhere, the temple is no longer the building, but the Body of Christ, that is, you and me. What defiles the Body of Christ is not the presence of the Gentiles, i.e. those who perhaps in our eyes do not have their life fully in order, or those who struggle to believe or need some more encouragement, and guidance. Those - and we among them, for we too sometimes fall in this category at some moment or other in our life - are called to salvation as well. Rather, those who define the temple are the thieves. I am understanding here thieves in the spiritual sense, thieves of God's grace and goodness. I am one of them when I say to myself, "It is ok if I do this, or that as long as I go to confession afterwards." I too am one of them when I try and buy God's grace by expecting God to repay me for the good that I do. I too am one of them when I pray and participate in the sacraments to feel better or to look better before others, and put myself at the centre instead of putting God at the core of my spiritual life.

Are my intentions always right? Of course not! That is why we need to allow our intentions to undergo purification. We must allow Jesus into our hearts to cleanse us just as he cleansed the temple so that when God looks at us, God may really call us his home and dwell in us as individuals and as a community.