Did the merchants return to the Temple?

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Meditation on the 3rd Sunday of Lent, year B1

Each sudden change in the set rhythm of the holiday is not seen by the participants. Jesus expels the traders from the temple area. For them it is a tragedy, the lack of planned earnings, although the destruction of the current order was not aimed at them. The Teacher’s anger aroused the custom of the people that absorbing, matter-oriented trade made prayer difficult. I imagine thrown helium balloons, battery-powered dogs or my favorite indulgence cream teddy bears.

I assume that the colorful stalls with indulgence kitsch (inscribed in this formula of trade) are not a threat to concentration in prayer, as long as they do not occupy a faithful place in the heart of the faithful before reflection, a religious experience. And they can take it, if we have the inclination to do so. If Sunday becomes a shopping mall day and a pizza day, and before that she rushes to church for an hour so that she still has time for the main goals of going out.

It is nothing new, and there is no point in moaning about the demoralization and atheization of contemporaries. In realistic scenes from “Chłopów” Wł. Reymont also describes how women are prepared to go to mass. The scarves, the amount of beads and morgas provided a place closer to or further from the altar. The mass was an opportunity to see the neighbors and newcomers to the village. It was also a fixation of the established order of things. What indignation was aroused by poor Kuba, who, having obtained more money from poaching, decided that he could sit close to rich farmers and throw all the zloty on the tray.

However, the peasants of the past combined church trading or the social aspects of the mass with a deep religious experience. The temple was delightful, the singing lifted souls to heaven, and the sermon sometimes smelled like real hell.

In his day, Jesus expelled traders, but today he would have to kick the faithful out of the merchant’s gallery. It is not teddy bears and indulgence candies that threaten people who are deep in prayer for new collections of anything at shop windows. The church is not that attractive to them.

The question of the rhythm of the mass and the sermons comes back at this point. In my favorite series about the English aristocracy, the Lord refuses to attend a Catholic mass because of the gymnastics he would have to do by repeatedly kneeling, standing up and sitting down. This mobility disturbs him in prayer. Well, it’s easier to take a nap at an Anglican Mass. Traditional Americans have the habit of discussing Sunday sermons at social gatherings. I would like to introduce such a custom at the family table. This is not always possible. I happened to listen to a sermon on such a general topic that it would be difficult to initiate a discussion without my own thesis.

And so through the ages human nature has split between the material and the spiritual. The Teacher knew this well.

“Jesus, on the other hand, did not confide in them, because he knew everyone well and did not need anyone’s testimony about man. For he knew himself what was hidden in a man ”