First Reading
Exodus 20:1-17

1. If there were ten commandments, why would Jesus say that there were only two? Why is love––love God and love your neighbor––the basis of all the others?

2. Why do you think the Ten Commandments have survived all the way from the time of Moses? Is there more in each one than we ordinarily see? For instance, could respect for life be extrapolated from “Thou shalt not kill.” Try some others.

Second Reading
1 Corinthians 1:22-25

1. After Jesus drives out the money changers in the Gospel, the people ask: “What sign can you show us for doing this?” What did Paul proclaim as the sign and the wisdom for those who are called? Without faith would you recognize a vulnerable, rejected Christ as the wisdom of God?

2. To what do the “foolishness” and “weakness” of God refer? St. Paul says the Jews had a problem accepting Christ crucified. What about you: how do you accept him? And what about the crosses in your own life? Are they “stumbling blocks” or stepping stones for you?

Gospel
John 2:13-25

1. “And to those who sold doves he said, take these out of here.” If we take the “marketplace” out of our Church, what could we put in its place? Classes and homilies that help us love God? Activities that spread that love to others? Feed the hungry, pass living wage bills, fix climate change, end racial bias?

2. Instead of the marketplace, for what does Pope Francis say our souls, the ecclesial community and civil communities, should be in constant search of?

These words help us to reject the danger of making our soul, which is God’s abode, a marketplace, A living in constant search for our benefit instead of in generous and solidary love. This teaching of Jesus is always timely, not only for the ecclesial communities but also for individuals, for civil communities and for society.

Jesus Cleanses the Temple 4th Paragraph
March 4, 2018 Angeles