Homily: Friday of the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time

Friday of the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time (Mk. 11:11-26) “The Violent Jesus”

Did Jesus use violence to achieve his goals? Most of us would probably say no. Others would say the passage we read today would show that Jesus was not afraid to do this. He seems to get into a physical altercation with the money changers in the temple. Some Christians have used this story to justify everything from self defense to just war theory. This would seem to be a bit of a stretch.

If Jesus would have used a large amount of brute force in the temple area, he would have probably paid a heavy price. There was always a large military force around the temple. There was the temple guard and the Roman military itself which had its garrison a short distance from the temple.

What exactly was going on in this episode of Jesus’ life. Jesus was engaged in a prophetic action. Prophets would preach with their words and then again, they would use symbolic actions to make a point. We can think of the prophet Jeremiah (chapter 28) who wore a wooden yoke around Jerusalem to make a point about how much Jewish exiles were suffering in Babylon. Other prophets cut the yoke off saying the suffering would end soon. Jeremiah had an iron one made to emphasize that the persecution would get worse. Sometimes a prophet’s symbolic actions disturbed the population more than anything that is said.

An action that is often used by the prophets of our day is a hunger strike. We can remember how Gandhi used hunger strikes to stop factions from fighting in India. People would stop fighting because they did not want to see him die. This was how he would protest violence.

Jesus created a disturbance at the temple. He turned over the tables. He drove out some animals, but we don’t get a sense that he physically harmed anyone. He made his point and then left the area. We would have to say that his prophetic action was effective because it is remembered 2,000 years later. Christians are careful about how we raise funds in church.

Reflection Questions:

1.    Have I ever seen somebody engaged in a prophetic action? Who was it and what did they do?

2.   Do I believe that Jesus would advocate physically harm someone? Why do I believe what I do?

 Dear Parishioners,

           We need more volunteers for our secondhand sale. We will begin collecting items this weekend. The sale itself will be the following weekend. If you would like to help, please call our office and we will pass your name along. If you would like to drop items off, please check the information on our WEB Site.

          All the money raised will be used to install a sound system in our Gathering Space. We would like to connect our monitors to the sound system so that they will be better utilized. Please help us out.

          May Our Lady pray for us.

          Fr. Mark