HOMILY XXII ON THE SECOND MONDAY OF LENT.
JOHN II. At that time Jesus went down to Capernaum, He, and His mother, and His brethren, and His disciples, and they continued there not many days.
It is often a cause of perplexity to some that in the beginning of this reading from the Gospel it is said that when the Lord went down to Capernaum, not only His mother and disciples followed Him, but also His brethren. Nor have heretics been lacking who believed that Joseph, the husband of the ever-blessed Virgin Mary, had begotten those who the Scripture calls the brethren of the Lord by another wife. Others, in even greater perfidy, thought that these were begotten by Mary herself after the Lord was born. But we, most beloved brethren, must know and confess without any scruple of doubt that not only the blessed Mother of God, but also Joseph, the most blessed witness and keeper of her chastity, always remained wholly free from any conjugal act; and that those called the brothers and sisters of the Savior, in the customary manner of the Scriptures, are actually called relatives. Finally, Abraham speaks to Lot in this way: 'I pray that there be no strife between me and thee, and between my shepherds and thine; for we are brethren.' And Laban to Jacob: 'Because thou art my brother, shouldst thou serve me for nothing?' (Gen. XXIX.) And indeed it is certain that Lot was the son of Aran, Abraham's brother, and Jacob was the son of Rebecca, Laban's sister, but because of kinship they were called brothers. Therefore, by this rule, common in the holy Scriptures, as I said, it must be understood that the relatives of Mary or Joseph are called the brothers of the Lord.
And he found, it says, in the temple those selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money-changers sitting. And when he had made a kind of whip out of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, including the oxen and the sheep, and he poured out the money of the money-changers and overturned their tables. Oxen, sheep, and doves were bought for the purpose of being offered in the temple. The money-changers sat at the tables so that there might be a ready exchange of money between buyers and sellers of the offerings. Therefore, it seemed lawful to sell in the temple what was bought for the purpose of being offered in the same temple to the Lord; but the Lord himself, unwilling that any earthly business, not even that which might be considered honest, should be conducted in his house, drove out the unjust traders and expelled them all along with the things they traded. What then, my brothers, what do you think the Lord would do if he found dissenters in disputes, those indulging in idle talk, those dissolving in laughter, or entangled in any other crime, who saw buyers in the temple purchasing sacrifices to be offered to him, and hastened to eliminate them? We say this because of those who, having entered the church, not only neglect to be intent on prayer but even increase the matters for which they ought to pray, and moreover follow those who argue with foolishness, insults, and hatreds, or even slanders: thus adding sin to sin, weaving as it were a very long cord by their reckless augmentation, not fearing to be condemned by the judgment of the strict judge. For twice indeed in the holy Gospel we read that the Lord, coming into the temple, drove out such traders, now, that is, in the third year before his passion, as we recognize from the subsequent writings of the Gospel, and in the very year he suffered, when five days before Passover, sitting on a donkey, he entered Jerusalem. But whoever is wise understands that he performs the same action in the temple of the holy Church through daily examination: hence these things are very dreadful, dearest ones, and must be feared with due reverence, and must be carefully avoided with diligent effort, lest, coming unexpectedly, he find any perverse thing in us for which we should rightly be scourged and expelled from the church: and especially in that which is particularly called the house of prayer, we must observe that we do not perform anything inappropriate, lest we hear with the Corinthians from the Apostle, "Do you not have houses to eat and drink in, or do you despise the church of God?" And from the prophet with the Jews: "My beloved has committed many crimes in my house" (Jeremiah 11). And indeed it is to be rejoiced that we ourselves have become the temple of God through baptism, as the Apostle testifies who says: "For the temple of God is holy, which you are" (1 Corinthians 3). We are the city of the great king, of which it is sung: "Its foundations are in the holy mountains" (Psalm 87), that is, the foundations of the Church in the solidity of the faith of the apostles and prophets; but it is very dreadful, because the Apostle has said beforehand: "If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him" (1 Corinthians 3). And the just Judge himself says, "I will destroy from the city of the Lord those who work iniquity" (Psalm 100). It is to be rejoiced, because in us the solemnity of Passover is celebrated, when we strive to pass from vices to virtues.
Easter indeed is called the Passover. We must rejoice because the Lord is visiting our hearts, that is, His own city; because it is fitting that He illuminates the presence of our good deeds with His piety. But we must fear sufficiently lest He finds us in His city doing something other than what He loves, and He shows Himself to us as a stern judge, rendering us what we do not love, lest He finds in His temple money changers or sellers of oxen, sheep, or doves and condemns us. For oxen signify the doctrine of the heavenly life, sheep signify works of purity and piety, and doves signify the gifts of the Holy Spirit. For surely, with the help of oxen, the field is accustomed to being plowed. The field, however, is the heart of the Lord cultivated with heavenly doctrine and duly prepared for the seeds of God’s word. Innocent sheep provide their wool for clothing men. The Spirit descended upon the Lord in the form of a dove. But they sell oxen, who dispense the word of the Gospel to listeners not out of divine love, but for the purpose of earthly gain, the kind of people whom the Apostle reproached because they preached Christ insincerely. They sell sheep, who perform acts of piety for the sake of human praise, about whom the Lord said: because they have received their reward (Mt. 6). They sell doves, who give the received grace of the Spirit not freely, as commanded, but for a price, who grant the laying on of hands by which the Spirit is received, if not for financial gain, yet for public favor, who conferring sacred orders not for the merit of life, but for the granting of favors. They give money in exchange in the temple, who serve not heavenly matters, but openly serve earthly matters in the Church, seeking their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But the Lord shows what reward awaits these deceitful workers when He drove them all out of the temple, having made a whip of cords. For they are cast out from the lot of the saints, who act either deceitfully or openly do evil works. He also drove out the sheep and oxen, showing that the life and doctrine of such people are alike reprobate. The cords with which He drove out the impious from the temple are the small pieces of their wicked actions, from which the material for the severe condemnation of reprobates is given to the strict judge. Hence Isaiah also says: Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity (Isa. 5). And in Proverbs Solomon says: His own iniquities capture the wicked, and he is bound with the cords of his sins (Prov. 5). For he who accumulates sins upon sins for which he will be severely condemned, extends as it were the cords by which he is bound and scourged, increasing them little by little. He also poured out the money of the money lenders and overturned the tables, because in the end, He will also take away from the reprobate the very essence of the things they loved, according to what is written: and the world passed away and its lust.
And to those who sold doves, he said: Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade. He commanded the selling of doves to be removed from the temple, because the grace of the Spirit, which is received without payment, should be given freely: hence Simon Magus, who wanted to buy this with money, so that he could sell it for a higher price, heard: May your money perish with you, you have no part or share in this matter. However, it should be noted that not only those who sell doves and turn the house of God into a house of trade are condemned, but also those who seek the sacred orders by giving money or inquiring about the price in terms of praise or even honor. Moreover, those who exercise the spiritual grade or grace in the Church, which they have received through the generosity of the Lord, not with simplicity but for any human reward, go against the word of the apostle Peter: Whoever speaks, as one who utters oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, so that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 4). Therefore, whoever such people may be, if they do not want to be driven out of the Church by the coming Lord, they should cast these things out of their actions, so that they do not make the house of God a house of trade. And it should not be overlooked that Scripture diligently commends to us both natures of our Savior, both human and divine. To understand that he is truly the Son of God, let us hear what he says: Do not make my Father's house a house of trade. Clearly, he shows himself to be the Son of God the Father, who calls the temple of God his Father's house. And again, to recognize that he is truly the Son of Man, let us recall that at the beginning of this reading, descending to Capernaum, he is said to have a mother.
His disciples remembered that it was written: "Zeal for your house will consume me." With zeal for the house of the Father, the Savior drove the impious out of the temple. Let us also, dearest brothers, be zealous for the house of God, and as much as we can, strive that nothing corrupt happens in it. If we see a brother who belongs to the house of God swollen with pride, habituated to detraction, serving drunkenness, weakened by luxury, troubled by anger, or subjected to any other vice, let us strive as much as our ability allows to correct, to rectify the corrupt and perverse, and if we cannot amend anything of such, endure it not without the sharpest pain of mind, and especially in the very house of prayer, where the body of the Lord is consecrated, where the presence of angels is always undoubtedly present, let us ensure with all our might that nothing improper is done, nothing that would impede our or our brother's prayer.
The Jews then answered and said to him: "What sign do you show us, seeing that you do these things?" Jesus answered and said to them: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Evangelist revealed of what temple he spoke, evidently of the temple of his body, which was destroyed by them through his passion but which he raised up from death after three days. Therefore, because they sought a sign from the Lord as to why he ought to cast out the usual trade from the temple, he responded that he rightly expelled the impious from the temple because that temple symbolized the temple of his body, in which there would be no stain of sin at all. Nor did he undeservedly cleanse the typical temple from crimes, who could by divine power raise the true temple of God, dissolved by men through death, from the dead.
The Jews therefore said: This temple has been built in forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days? As they understood, so they responded: but lest we also should understand the Lord's spiritual word carnally, the Evangelist explained the temple he was speaking of: What they say, the temple was built in forty-six years, signifies not the first, but the second building of it. Solomon first perfected the temple in seven years of work in the great peace of his kingdom, which, having been destroyed by the Chaldeans, began to be rebuilt after seventy years at the command of Cyrus the Persian, the captivity having been relaxed: but the sons of the captivity, the work they were doing under the leaders Zerubbabel and Joshua, could not complete in forty-six years because of the attack of neighboring nations. This number of years appropriately matches the formation of the Lord’s body. For natural writers say that the form of the human body is completed in the same number of days, because in the first six days from conception it has the semblance of milk; in the following nine days it converts to blood, then in twelve days it solidifies; in the remaining eighteen days it forms until all the features of the members are perfected; and then in the remaining time up to the moment of birth it increases in size. Six, nine, twelve, and eighteen make up forty-five, to which if we add one, that is, the day on which the body begins to take shape through the separated members, there are just as many days in the construction of the Lord’s body as years were found in the building of the temple. And because that temple built by hands prefigured the Lord's most holy flesh which he took from the Virgin, as we learn from this place; because equally his body, which is the Church, signifies the body and soul of each of the faithful, as we find in many places of the Scriptures, it is fitting to recall something of the building of that temple, by which your fraternity may recognize how all things written about it pertain to Christ and the Church. It was oriented towards the east, having a door facing the sunrise, which immediately upon rising bathed all its interior with its light. And the holy Church directs the whole intention of its mind to his grace, of whom Zechariah says: The sunrise from on high has visited us to shine on those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death (Luke 1). And always mindful of his promise when he says, Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it (Psalm 80); gladly responds: I opened my mouth and panted, for I longed for your commandments (Psalm 119); which means: I opened the devotion of my heart, and I deserved to draw in the light of your spirit, because I learned to observe nothing else in the world than the observance of your commandments. Outside, it appeared built of white stone; inside, the ceilings, walls, floor, beams, doors, and whatever vessels there were, were covered with overlaid gold.
And the Church indeed outwardly shows to all the strength of perfect action; but it teaches only those who have learned to consider it piously to understand how much it excels inwardly in the virtues of each soul, how greatly each of these is adorned with the light of charity. The gold plates themselves are attached to cedar boards or fir, or certainly prepared from olive wood: all of which are clearly considered excellent woods. And the splendor of the Lord's love, through the memory of His most holy passion which was completed on the precious wood of the cross, is imprinted in the hearts of the faithful, lest it be forgotten. The temple itself is divided by a veil of the middle wall, and it is called the sanctuary on the outside, but on the inside where the ark of the covenant was placed, it was called the holy of holies. And the Church partly journeys on Earth away from the Lord, partly reigns with the Lord in the heavens. For the middle wall itself is understood to be heaven, the ark of the covenant is the Lord, who alone, conscious of the secret things of the fathers, has penetrated the innermost parts of heaven. The ascent that led to the upper and third room was made through the recesses of the southern wall as if by an invisible step, so that only the beginning of the same ascent from the eastern corner of the mentioned wall was seen, but the progress of the ascent itself was known only to the one who ascended it, of which Scripture thus remembers: "The door for the middle chamber was in the right side of the house: and they went up with winding stairs into the middle chamber, and out of the middle into the third" (1 Kings 6). With the Lord suffering on the cross, one of the soldiers opened His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. This is the water of Baptism by which we are washed, and this is the blood of the Lord's chalice by which we are sanctified. Through these sacred mysteries of the side, by the merit of invisible faith, we ascend from the present life of the Church, which sojourns on Earth, into the life of heavenly blessedness, in which the souls of the just enjoy, freed from bodies. But also from that life, with bodies received back in the resurrection, up to the supreme glory of eternal happiness, we pass by the guiding faith of the same Lord's passion; of which glory indeed Isaiah speaks: "In their own land they shall possess double; everlasting joy shall be theirs" (Isaiah 61), that is, in the land of the living, which alone is the land of the saints, with the eternal joys of both flesh and soul enjoying happiness. Therefore, the lower house signifies the present conversation of the saints, the upper the rest of souls which is received after this life, and the highest glory of the resurrection which will never ever be changed; the door of the middle side, situated on the right side of the house and opening the way to the upper parts, is the faith in the passion of Christ, whose right side pierced on the cross emanated the sacraments for us, by which imbued we may ascend to the joys of heavenly life. In seven years and as many months the first structure of the temple was completed, but in the eighth year, and in the eighth month from when it began to be built, the dedication ceremony followed; and the Church throughout the entire present age, which revolves in seven days, continues to take spiritual increases of its members until the times of the future eternal resurrection, when with the peaceful King it will enter the feast of its dedication. For since the Lord rose on the eighth day, that is, after the seventh of the Sabbath, from death, rightly does this number also designate the future joys of our resurrection.
It is sufficient to have mentioned these few things out of many regarding the creation, so that it may appear more clearly how all things shine with spiritual understanding. But as we conclude the discourse, let us return to the Lord's statement, where he says to the Jews seeking a sign: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John II), and let us give thanks to his mercy, who has revealed the mystery of his passion and resurrection from the dead, which he expressed in veiled terms to the unbelievers who tested him, now in clear light to us who already believe in him. And because the time is near when we desire to celebrate with an annual solemnity both the destruction of this venerable temple by the faithless and the resurrection, which he miraculously exhibited on the third day as he promised, let us cleanse the temples of our bodies and hearts, so that the Spirit of God may deign to dwell in us, and according to the Apostle's admonition, let us cast aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, walking honestly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envy, but clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. XIII), who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, God before all ages. Amen.