Dedication of St. John Lateran
There is no indication whatsoever in the scriptures that Mary was presented in the Temple. But this pious legend wants to state something real: that Mary followed her Son, that her mentality and attitude was that of Jesus, and that like her Son she was entirely set on seeking God's will in everything. She was a true relative of Jesus, also mentally, spiritually, in the spirit of the gospel of today.
Reading: 1 Corinthians 3:9c-11,16-17
You are God’s house. Using the gift God gave me as a good architect, I designed blueprints; Apollos is putting up the walls. Let each carpenter who comes on the job take care to build on the foundation! Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ.
You realize, don’t you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you? No one will get by with vandalizing God’s temple, you can be sure of that. God’s temple is sacred—and you, remember, are the temple.
Gospel: John 2:13-22
When the Passover Feast, celebrated each spring by the Jews, was about to take place, Jesus traveled up to Jerusalem. He found the Temple teeming with people selling cattle and sheep and doves. The loan sharks were also there in full strength.
Jesus put together a whip out of strips of leather and chased them out of the Temple, stampeding the sheep and cattle, upending the tables of the loan sharks, spilling coins left and right. He told the dove merchants, “Get your things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a shopping mall!” That’s when his disciples remembered the Scripture, “Zeal for your house consumes me.”
But the Jews were upset. They asked, “What credentials can you present to justify this?” Jesus answered, “Tear down this Temple and in three days I’ll put it back together.”
They were indignant: “It took forty-six years to build this Temple, and you’re going to rebuild it in three days?” But Jesus was talking about his body as the Temple. Later, after he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this. They then put two and two together and believed both what was written in Scripture and what Jesus had said.
Prayer
Almighty God,
you know and you love us;
like Mary we know that whatever happens to us
we are in your hands.
Wherever you lead us,
you know here you want us to go.
We ask you for trust and faith.
Make your will our will,
that you may lead us to your home
under the guidance of him
who did your will in everything
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
