JESUS "THROWS A FIT"

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He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area,

with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money changers

and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said,

“Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”

John 2:13-25

In a moment of great humility, something rare for our church at that time, the bishops of Vatican II admitted in writing that the church is “semper reformanda,” “always in need of reform.” The human side of the church, like all human organizations, has a tendency to fall into sin and decay and must be called back to fidelity, over and over again, as it moves through history. As it was in the beginning, is now and shall ever be, as long as it is on the earth. Yes, even in Jesus’ day, organized religion needed a good cleansing.

In a dramatic and public gesture of outrage, Jesus' anger boils over. He throws a fit and his fit is a lot more serious than selling raffle tickets in the back of church! It is very important to remember that the anger of Jesus was not directed at people who sinned or failed in all their everyday ways. His anger was directed at those who controlled religion and used it to abuse simple people. He had pity and compassion on the outcasts, the sick and sinner, but he was outraged at what had happened, at the hands of its leaders, to the religion he loved. In some of the most blunt words from the mouth of Jesus ever recorded, he called them “snakes, fakes, phonies and frauds. He called them “whitewashed tombs,” “all clean and pretty on the outside, but filled with stench and rot on the inside!” It is important to note that Jesus was not against organized religion, but what these people had done to organized religion he loved. As this gospel story tell us, he did not come to tear down the temple, he simply came to clean house! Instead of serving the religious needs of their people, they used people to serve their own needs. The temple had become a market place and they were getting a cut on every corner of it!

Even so, Jesus is not interested in a shake-up of temple administration. He knew all that “religious business” that he saw going on the the Temple precincts came from hearts that had turned away from God. He wanted conversion and transformation of minds and hearts, not just some cosmetic changes in the structure or simply a shake-up of a system. He was more interested in people changing internally than making external changes in the material world. He knew that if people turned toward God, the organization itself would improve.

It is sad that many people never get below the packaging when it comes to religion. One of my favorite writers says that they "live on the epidermis of the faith," meaning that their faith is just "skin deep." They see only the earthenware jar and never the treasure it holds. The purpose of religion is to serve others, not to be served by others. Pope Francis has taught that the Church must not be closed in on itself, preoccupied solely with its own inner life. If it is to be healthy, it must reach out beyond itself, not be focused in on its own self.

It is also sad that many people naïvely assume that organized religion is always evil simply because it has gotten off track here and there in history. In today's gospel Jesus was not attacking organized religion, but organized religion that had gotten off track. Jesus was clear that he did not come to destroy organized religion, but to lead it back to its original purpose, to do the right thing and to do it for the right reasons, and that is to protect and pass on the “truth of the gospel.” He was for reformation, not destruction.

Without organized religion, the truth of the gospel would not have been passed from one generation to another. Without organized religion, we would never have heard the “good news.” Without organized religion, we would not have the sacred scriptures. Without organized religion, we would be split into millions of personal opinions and small little cults. Without organized religion, we could not be the unified and effective “Body of Christ” in the world today. Without organized religion, the followers of Christ would not be able to take the “good news” to the ends of the earth. Without organized religion, we would not have a way to offer support to other believers around the world. Yes, the church may always be in need of reform, but that does not negate the need for the church to be organized. Yes, the church may need a good “house cleaning” every now and then, (what house doesn't?) but the church still needs to be organized.

Fellow Catholics! The church of the recent past has been too closely identified with its leaders. These days we have re-discovered and re-emphasized the fact that we, each and every one of us, is the church. For the last thirty or forty years, people have operated out of a romantic notion that all the ills of the church reside with the institution – so that if only we could reform it, we ourselves would be better Christians. The truth quite often is the other way around. The institution will get better when each one of us are reformed and transformed. These days, we are called to renew the church, not by focusing on the weaknesses of the institution, but on our own personal conversion, one heart at a time. No church can be strong when every member of it is weak.

What is even more distressing to me are those today who imagine they can take us back to some imagined "glory days" by dragging out old artifacts and reviving old forms of clericalism as if that will fix what ails us. What is really needed is a powerful focus on preaching conversion of heart and conversion of life in a convincing way! Turning "my Father's house" into a "museum" misses the mark just as much as turning it into a "marketplace!" Preachers who cannot move people's hearts, always seem to resort either to rearranging the furniture or angrily ranting and raving how they ought to be listened to and what's wrong with everybody else!

We are the church. We are called to “clean house” one heart at a time! The problems of the church begin right here in our own hearts and in our own lives. As the philosopher Goethe put it, "Let everyone sweep in front of his own front door and the whole world will be clean." When you and I get better, the church will get better. It’s like the old song about “peace” that we are all familiar with: “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me!” I say, "Let there be a renewed church on earth and let it begin with me!"

Fellow Catholics! The church of the recent past has been overly identified with its leaders. Members of the church were seen as serving the leaders of the church. Now the church is again identified with the members of the church and the leaders are seen as servants of its members - at least on paper! The church of the future will be a church more identified with the laity. That church cannot be strong if all its members are weak. If the church is to be renewed, it will begin with you and me. Let us step up to the plate and take responsibility for our part in carrying Christ’s mission to the world. Let the “house cleaning” begin and let it begin inside us!