Homily: Friday of the Thirty-third Week of Ordinary Time
Friday of the Thirty-third Week of Ordinary Time (Lk. 19:45-48) “Mad but for Good Reason.”
Quite often people wonder if Jesus ever got angry. Did Jesus ever become violent or was he non-violent? There are few incidents that people can point to in the Bible that can be used to justify violence. When Jesus went to the temple and got mad at the money changers it is thought that he had a physical altercation.
Several things we could note about this in Luke’s version of the story. One thing is that Jesus is not said to have used a whip out of chords to intimidate people in this Gospel. It only says that he chased the money changers out of the temple.
How big a confrontation was this we might ask? Was it a verbal confrontation or was it physical? We get a sense that Jesus pushed the altercation so far, but he backed off before he was arrested. He escaped before anyone could do anything to him.
We can also think about this in terms of a prophetic action. Prophets are known to engage in symbolic gestures to make people think. We think of Jeremiah. He was a master of the prophetic action. In Jeremiah 27 he puts on a wooden yoke to symbolize the yoke of Babylon and the fact that the Judah must try to resist the temptation to placate Babylon. Jesus was a prophet like Jeremiah.
His actions at the temple were more symbolic than anything else. He did not loose his temper. Cleansing the temple was a calculated action. He wanted to make a nonverbal statement that would cause people to think about the corruption in the temple.
Jesus had a way of channeling his anger. He never reacted when he was treated unfairly. He did react when he would see other people being taken advantage of. Jesus got mad about gross injustice. That would be called righteous anger.
Reflection Questions:
- Have I ever seen anybody participate in a prophetic action? Did it achieve its purpose?
- Is any anger acceptable? Is righteous anger the same as any other kind of anger?
Dear Parishioners,
This week we had Principals Appreciation Day at Seton School. Jane Barrett and Mary Cornelis have done a great job for a long time leading our school community.
These past two years have been especially tough. The Coronavirus has challenged them in many ways. But in my opinion, they have done a good job keeping our school running and keeping our students safe.
If anyone would like to join in with your appreciation for what these two women have done for our school, please drop them an email or a card. We don’t ever want to take our school leaders for granted.
May Our Lady and all the Angels and Saints watch over you today.
Fr. Mark