Gospel for November 20, 2009, Friday
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 11/20/2009 12:31 AM
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33rd Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: 1 Mac 4:36–37, 52–59
Gospel: Lk 19:45–48
Jesus entered the Temple area and began to drive out the merchants. And he said to them, “God says in the Scriptures: My house shall be a house of prayer: but you have turned it into a den of robbers.”
Jesus was teaching every day in the Temple. The chief priests and teachers of the Law wanted to kill him and the elders of the Jews as well, but they were unable to do anything, for all the people were listening to him and hanging on his words.
Commentary
The merchants in the Temple are like all those who, while still practicing the coarsest sins, would like to be respectable and do good works, but only so that God might give them something else in exchange. They want God to repay them with something pleasant; they would be traffickers with God. But it is a mistake to try to carry out business like this. Whatever they are, they are from God; whatever they possess, they receive from God, not themselves. To want to bargain with Christ is to know nothing of the truth.
God doesn’t look for his own advantage; in all things He is detached and free; He does everything through love. And the person, who is united to God, does likewise. Through the grace of God, we are also detached and free in all our actions; we live for the honor of God alone and not for our own advantage…or rather, we fulfill our lives in God. So, if we want to be completely detached from a mercenary attitude in spiritual things, we must do everything for God’s praise, without asking anything in return. Then, God is present in our spiritual works…for all the world to see!
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