The first reading this Third Sunday of Lent is from the Book of Exodus teaching us the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments call us to a way of life that is out of tune with the society the media presents, and, to some degree, out of tune with our own society. Honesty, respect for parents, fidelity, respect for property, putting God before all else, giving him a day a week, are all ways that we are distinct from others. To be distinct, to be separate for the Lord, is what we mean when we say, “We are called to be holy.” We live these commandments so that ultimately, we might not be wrapped up in ourselves. We live these commandments in response to God's preference of us as his chosen people.
The Ten Commandments are not outdated. Nor are they easy. But they are effective. By fulfilling this covenant, we are responding to God's call to be his people. In a way they are a bit like a list of activities which we should or shouldn’t do in order to live life in obedience to God: We must put God first. We must not have idols. Wow! We are smarter than that! But then there are so many things that have taken the place of ‘God’ in our life! On what do we spend most of our time and effort? That literally is the ‘god’ in our life and that might even prevent us from giving time to God on a Sunday. We might be more successful with the commands like ‘Do not kill … or do not bear false witness.’
One thing for sure is that these laws cannot touch or change our hearts or our very beings; they cannot touch us deep inside where we hold love, hurt and longing. And we cannot form a relationship with commandments so they alone cannot make us fully human and holy in the way God wants us to be. And so in Jesus, God gives us a sort of self-portrait. He pours into Jesus everything of himself that can be put in human form and then comes to live with us. In Jesus we see the commandments brought to life and we see the love, compassion and mercy of God bringing forgiveness and healing to the bruised places of our hearts.
The Gospel reading that is paired with this teaching of commandments is the passage of the cleansing of the Temple by Jesus. Our mold of a meek and gentle Jesus is broken, in this one incident of lasso wielding bravado. St John renders this as the ‘zeal for the house of God’. Commandments and Temple cleansing remind us of the challenge of our sacred calling. Christ told us to be the ‘temple’ – a place where people can encounter God. There is no place for a lukewarm religion in our life.
Fr. Tom Kunnel C.O.