Kyrieeleison!! Tuesday- Christ taught in the temple

Kyrieeleison! O Lord, Have mercy! Kyrieeleison!

Today, we learn from the bible and church tradition that Our Lord Jesus Christ taught in the temple and were questioned by the Pharisees as the Bible tells us, “Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. “By what authority are you doing these things?” [Mt 21:23]. On Hosanna, Our Lord has entered to Jerusalem as a King and on Monday He has cleaned the temple, as the Bible stated, “ He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changer’s money and overturned the tables.’ [Jn 2:15].  It is here that the chief priests, the scribes, the pharisees, and all those who used religion for earning their livelihood, were laying in wait, hunting for words and deeds of Jesus that they might use against Him. Mind you, Our Lord did not chase the sellers or the moneychangers but only the cattle, sheep and pigeons- not even the Pharisees or scribes. Because He came not to judge but to purify and sanctify. He came to mend the corrupt. In His eyes, one soul is more precious than all these animals and gold and money.[St. Cyril the Great]  But the more He show them  his love, the more they want to kill him and  said, “Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.” [Jer 18:18] .

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Our Lord answered thier question with question since He knew their intent. Then He thought them in parables about the Kingdom of heaven and the end times; and the Jews leader/priest didn’t like it.  The Pharisees and Sadducees came with so many malicious questions to trap Him. The Sadducees, who deny the resurrection, asks about the resurrection [Mt 22:33-40], He thought all of them warning all of us to keep watch and be ready. In general the Church stresses the second Coming, the end of the world and the urge to get ready. This is the day our Savior lovingly invites us to keep watching with our lamps lit.

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He didn’t like the temple [body] they [Pharisees and Sadducees and us] built for Him to live. It has so much pride, ego, few jealousy, hatred…feeling of loneliness, brokenness ..Then He started getting the drains right and stopped the leaking in the roof…and presently He starts knocking the house in way that hurts and doesn’t make sense. The Pharisees were superficial, egotistical and self-centered and didn’t understand what He was doing. He was building a quite different house from the one they thought of… He was building a Palace.. Because His desire and intention was to come and live in us.

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“O Lord, I am sorry I have resisted when you try to fix me!  I am sorry I always run to my old ways! The easy way. It is because I didn’t know better. Only You know,  Lord, what a great good may soon break from my broken heartedness, if only I bring the pieces to You. Draw me away, O Lord! I am helpless, I want You to intervene on my behalf. Attract me to You. O Lord, for without You I can’t do nothing!. Do not leave me to my own will, my frail determination or my human ability for I am no much to the challenges of the world. I want You, O Lord, to knock down my pride, ego, jealousy.. feeling of loneliness, and want You to bring me out of this mess Yourself, for without you, I simply can not.”

Search me, O God, and know my heart:

Try me, and know my thoughts:

And see if there be any wicked way in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting.[Psalm 139]