Gospel: November 22, 2024
November 22, 2024 (Friday)
33rd Week in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 1 / (Red)
St. Cecillia, virgin & martyr
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 119: 14, 24, 72, 103, 111, 131
How sweet to my taste is your promise.
1st Reading: Revelation 10: 8-11
Gospel: Luke 19: 45-48
Then 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.
Reflection:
“House of prayer”
The Lucan account of the cleansing of the temple appears not as elaborate as the others in terms of describing how fierce Jesus was (Mk 11:15-19; Mt 21:12-17; Jn 2:13-16). Luke simply narrates that Jesus drove out the merchants. Luke ends the pericope by narrating that Jesus was teaching every day in the temple. Interestingly, this particular line is followed immediately by telling that the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders of the Jews wanted to kill Jesus.
Luke may have toned down the depiction of Jesus’ physical assault to the temple but we may reflect on the fact that Jesus’ teachings must have shaken the then existing status quo, earning the ire of the powers that be in those days. The passage ends by telling that these powerful people were not able to accomplish their plan of killing Jesus because the people were listening to and hanging on to his words. Later on, Jesus would be killed. This implies that the people stopped listening to him.
