(Friday in the 33rd Week of OT)
Readings: Revelation 10:8-11, Psalm 119, & Luke 19:45-48.
"My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves" (Luke 19:46).
Jesus is Lord, praise him now and forever. At Jerusalem Jesus saw that the house of God has been turned to be a den of robbers and a market place where all kind of evil things are sold. But this place should have been a place of prayer.
Jesus begun to bring sanity to the place, but faced opposition. But friends is Jesus taking about just ordinary building? Yes and No. Yes in the the sense of the whole house of God, the assembly of God. The house of God should be a place to communion with God, but it is now turned to be a place where evil is found. The Church is no longer a place of prayer, but a place of fashion and the like.
No, because in actual sense Jesus is referring to our own body as the house of God. What can be found in me? St. Paul says that our bodies are the temple and a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit; anyone who destroys it will be destroyed.
Friends what do I do to help make my body, local church or community, parish, and Church in general a true place of worship and prayer? Lord Jesus Christ, help us to respect your holy dwelling place and take away from it anything that will destroy it. May the Lord richly bless us. Peace and joy, Amen.