MONDAY, August 17

Jesus seems not to have been in a happy mood. He has just cursed a fig tree that had no figs, causing it to wither and die, and now he has taken a whip and run the money changers out of the Temple, overturning their tables and cages of sacrificial animals for sale. This is not the Jesus of popular art, sitting on a grassy knoll with lambs and birds about him, smiling at the little children.

Whence the disgust? Why the passion? Jesus isn't against church bazaars or fund raisers. He is against fraud. The money changers extracted a hefty profit changing Roman currency to the Temple currency acceptable for offerings. They also sold blemished animals, cosmetically cleaned up, for sacrifice.

The purpose of the Temple, and now the church, is to bring people to God. When it abandons this mission it is like a fig tree that produces no figs.

I loved the church for Christ made visible. Not for itself, because it was so often a scandal to me....The scandal of businesslike priests, of collective wealth, the lack of a sense of responsibility for the poor...."The worst enemies would be those of our own household," Christ has warned us.

-Dorothy Day

PRAY for the Diocese of Santiago (Philippines)

Ps 106:1-18 * 106:19-48; 2 Samuel 17:24-18:8; Acts 22:30-23:11