The Word of God
(Rev 10:8-11; Ps 119; Lk 19:45-48)
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The Law of the Lord is sweet, like honey to the mouth.
A message that can be drawn from the readings today is to pray more contemplatively, to focus on the Word of God.
According to Robert Barron, the Messiah had four distinct roles: to gather all people to himself; to restore the temple; to overcome the enemies of Israel, and to reign over all creation forever.
We know Jesus, as the Messiah, did indeed gather people from all over to himself; that he did overcome the real enemy of Israel, death itself through the resurrection, and that he truly is even now reigning over all creation.
In the Gospel, we see Jesus restoring the temple. During the time of Ezekiel, the religious system had become so corrupt the shekinahor glory of the Lord rose up and abandoned the Temple. The Word of God that was sweet to the mouth had truly become bitter to the stomach of any faithful Jew. Jesus was now restoring the temple, not just by driving out the moneychangers, but also by being himself the Temple where God truly dwells. Plus the glory of God did return to the temple, not the physical building in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus, but on the early church huddled in the upper room at Pentecost in the form of a strong wind and tongues of fire! We are the new Temple of God.
As children of God who are baptized into Christ Jesus, we are also Temples of the Holy Spirit. The psalm tells us what we should do. The Word of God must be sweet in our mouths also. One of the best ways to allowing that to happen is contemplative prayer based on the Word of God, and delighting in that Word.
We can also cleans out our spiritual temple by a sincere celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, in which we are forgiven our sins, and healed of our sinfulness, that which makes us sin.
The Eucharist focuses on the Word of God, especially during the Liturgy of the Word. The Eucharist itself also is based on Scripture. And there is contemplative prayer after communion when in silence we commune with our God in a very intimate way.
So, may our celebration today deepen our experience of Jesus as the Messiah and also our appreciation for contemplative prayer and the Word of God.
Well yes I agree with the following messages and homily. We can cleans our spiritual temple by ging through reconcilation and confess our sins and ask God to forgives our sins. Then, he will bless us and healed us from any sins we have done in the past . When we do repentance we belong to God and he will as us to serve him better. He will teach us how to become this better person by opening ourselves to receive him spiritually. Once we decided to believe and trust Jesus; he will perform miracles and good things among us to help spread his word. We will also receive gifts from the Holy Spirit like people speaking in tongues during the Pentecost and people speaking in languages that God understands. The Holy Spirit descends like fire and people were scared; like what is going on and what is happening. This is way of spreading the word of God by descending upon us in different ways to help spread the word. We are to pray that contemplative prayer and acknowledge it to by putting it in good use . Amen . Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ
There are many different ways God can spread his messages . It is like are we willing to receive it and use it in celebrations and in our private moments. Thanks again for all those gorgeous and beautiful pictures. I love reading your homilies with valuable teachings and lessons that we need to learn everyday. It just like Jesus telling us time to time in our busy lives, but do we understand. Bishop Sylvain. Gracias! Des Coloures!