The Third Sunday of Lent: "Zeal for your house consumes me."

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."
His disciples recalled the words of Scripture,
Zeal for your house will consume me.
At this the Jews answered and said to him,
"What sign can you show us for doing this?"
Jesus answered and said to them,
"Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."

--Jn 2:13-25

Click here for the Sacred Scriptures for the Third Sunday of Lent.

Christ cleanses the temple which is each human person, making of it "a dwelling place for God in the Spirit", through the forgiveness of His Mercy. And what is the "sign can He show us for doing this?" The temple of His Body was destroyed by death and in three days He rose.

"Jesus went up to the Temple as the privileged place of encounter with God. For him, the Temple was the dwelling of his Father, a house of prayer, and he was angered that its outer court had become a place of commerce. (Cf. Mt 21:13) He drove merchants out of it because of jealous love for his Father: 'You shall not make my Father's house a house of trade.' His disciples remembered that it was written, 'Zeal for your house will consume me' (Jn 2:16-17; cf. Ps 69:10) After his Resurrection his apostles retained their reverence for the Temple. (Cf. Acts 2:46; 3:1; 5:20, 21)" (CCC 584)

The zeal of the Lord Jesus is for His Father's house in every human person, become a dwelling for glorifying the Father through the splendor of the Holy Spirit.

Meeting Christ in the Liturgy offers a reflection for the Third Sunday of Lent .

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Art: El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos) Christ Cleansing the Temple, probably before 1570. Samuel H. Kress Collection 1957.14., National Gallery of Art.)