March 3, 2024
Jesus aggressively, dramatically acts to cleanse the Temple. How does this relate to the condition of the Church today? How does God see this condition? Some prophetic messages about this.
Key Points
- What is “normal” to humans, may be an abomination to God.
- This is all leading to a raising up, a “Resurrection” of His Church.
- Proper obedience to Authority
- When is it right to disobey?
This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable. It has not been verified by the author.
“In the temple, Jesus found those who are selling oxen, sheep, and pigeons, and money changers at their business. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all, with the sheep and oxen out of the temple. And he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And He told to those who sold the pigeons, take these things away, you shall not make my father’s house, a house of trade.” This gospel seems to be very providential for what our little mission is going through right now. And so I wanted to take a little bit of time to reflect on what I thought God wanted me to share today. And so you might want to take a little nap during the homily. I hope you brought your pillows. Jesus is doing this at the very beginning of His public life. So this, this guy who’s been this nice, quiet, normal carpenter, from Nazareth, is now doing all these very controversial things to such a point that even His own relatives are saying, He’s gone crazy. He’s out of His mind. So Jesus had those 30 years, 30 long years of His hidden life. And now He’s beginning these three years of His public life. And I’m struck, because I think I’ve, as I’ve been saying, recently, I think the Mission of Divine Mercy is passing from, its’ hidden life, we were just this kind of little quiet community puttering along in the hill country. And now the Lord is asking us to take a big new step, which is not easy, but more public step. And it’s striking to me because it was, it was 30 years ago, that I first encountered these messages. And so that’s been 30 years of hidden life, that seems very significant. So the first point is that I want to focus on with this action of Jesus is God’s perspective versus man’s perspective. Because the situation that Jesus is acting against, so dramatically, had probably been going on in a long time. And probably a lot of people just began thinking, well, that the chief priests say it’s okay, the Pharisees and scribes, they’re okay with it. So they’re the experts, it must be okay. It’s been going on for a long time. It’s right here in the temple. So there must not be anything wrong with it. Maybe some people are bothered by it. But they thought, Well, who am I to say, because I’m not the chief priest, I’m not a scribe to the Pharisees. And I’m not the one in charge of the temple. And so a lot of things that can seem humanly that we just think, well, that’s normal, we’re used to it, but might be very different in God’s eyes. I’ll give you one example from my own life. And I was 30 years ago, precise, when I was serving in Monterey, I was a young priest. And I was kind of thinking, well, you know, some of the ways that Mass was being celebrated seem to be not very reverent, not very respectful. But, then you know, there was that sometimes these big Masses, celebrated by the Cardinal, Cardinal Archbishop of Monterey with all the very big, kind of fancy, solemn Masses. But I thought, well, maybe I’m just kind of too old fashioned or too spiritual or something like that. And that this I just need to loosen up. And it was striking to me when I began, these two women began sharing their messages with me. One of the important things the Lord was talking about, how offended He was, by the way the Eucharist was being celebrated. And how He wanted to bring about a renewal of faith and love, of reverence and adoration for the Blessed Sacrament. And a number of you have made our Encounter with Jesus retreat, which started almost 30 years ago. And that’s one of the key points of the Encounter with Jesus, is to renew faith and love in the Holy Eucharist and the Encounter with Jesus retreats were very largely inspired by those messages, though people didn’t know that at that time. But it’s an example of the way man thinks, and how God, the difference between the way God sees things. And so that’s been the role of prophets. That in history is when God will often send prophets because there’s something that He needs to correct. And oftentimes, it’s something that the leaders, the authorities are doing. And the prophet needs to say that’s wrong. That’s not what God wants. And so it’s often, especially in times of corruption and confusion, that God needs to send prophetic voices to shed His light, say, this is not good, you’re doing something wrong and something which will have terrible consequences if you don’t change it. And so, those of you who know our little mission, know that we’ve often spoken because God has often spoken to us about the importance today of this prophetic grace for the Church, because we are living in a time of a lot of confusion and a lot of corruption, even in the Church. Cardinal Ratzinger who became Pope Benedict, wrote about prophecy says, prophecy is eminently the place, God reserves for Himself to intervene personally. Prophesy is what God uses to intervene personally, and anew each time, taking the initiative through charisms, spiritual graces. He reserves for Himself the right to intervene directly in the Church, to awaken it, to warn it, to promote it and to sanctify it. So that’s Cardinal Ratzinger, future Pope Benedict saying, the prophecy is the privileged way that God Himself intervenes to awaken the Church, to warn it, to promote it and to sanctify it. Does God need to ask permission of anybody to intervene? No, He’s God all the members of the Church, including the highest authorities, their role is to obey God. Nobody, God doesn’t have to ask anybody. He can do whatever He wants, whenever He wants. And it’s not for us to tell God what He can do. So that’s the first point, God’s perspective, which may be different from what we’ve grown used to. The second point is the crisis of corruption in the Church. Jesus in this Gospel says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up”. And they didn’t know what He was talking about. But John says, He was speaking about the Temple of His body, His physical body, and His mystical body, which is the Church. And so Jesus, as He begins, His public life needs to clean, He’s doing this prophetic, because prophetic gestures, the prophets are often called by God to do dramatic gestures, to speak clearly and boldly and to do dramatic things that can be shocking. There’s all sorts of examples, some of them are very shocking examples of the prophets sent by God, asked by God to do these shocking things, to wake people up. And this is a gesture that Jesus was doing to wake people up. So to cleanse the temple. And but it wasn’t just what was being bought and sold there. We know that that was just a sign of a deeper corruption in the temple. The religious authorities were the main obstacles that Jesus faced. Let me say that, again, the religious authorities, were the main obstacles that Jesus faced; the chief priests, the scribes, who were the theologians, and the Pharisees, they became they who should have been the privilege instruments of God became the obstacles to God, anti-God, anti-Christ, working against the Christ. That’s not a very comfortable thing to say. But it’s the gospel said very clearly. And so we have to be aware of how this applies to the Church today. And I believe that there is very grave evil in a way that’s never happened before, at the highest levels of the Church. And we’ll be speaking more about this soon. But so, we are in a time of crisis, even though a lot of people don’t realize it. That’s what the prophets had to do. They often, to wake people up because what people were seeing as normal, the prophet had to say, that’s not normal. Like in this Gospel, Jesus had to say, it’s not normal, that there’ll be this marketplace in the temple. So even though we might think things are normal, God might be saying, No, this is not normal. This is a crisis. St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that a law which in ordinary circumstances is good, but in certain times of crisis, obedience to that same law, can cause great harm. Obedience to the law, which in normal times is good, but obedience to that same law could cause great harm in a time of crisis. Let me just give a simple example. Say you should respect the speed limit, but maybe if there’s the person dying and you have to rush them to the hospital, should you say no, I can’t do that because the speed limit is 40. No, in that case, you need because it’s a time of crisis, it would be wrong to follow that speed limit, because of the greater need of the situation. In these, and St. Thomas goes on to say in these, in like cases, it is bad to follow the law. In those specific cases, it is good to set aside the letter of the law and follow the dictates of justice in the common good. So again, yeah, I gave that simple example. But so that’s St. Thomas saying that laws, they can be good laws, but there might be exceptional circumstances where it would be wrong to follow those laws. And the canon law of the Church says that’s the highest law of the church, so it can like there’s all these different rules and regulations, but the canon law itself, in the book of the code of canon law, it says that the highest law of the Church, what is it? The highest law of the church is what? Is the salvation of souls, so that sometimes we might have to sacrifice the less important laws to preserve the highest law of the Church, which is the salvation of souls. Again, that’s canon law itself. And a good example of that, a famous example, is the Aryan crisis. The Aryan crisis, the Aryan crisis involves the heresy. So this was in the fourth century, gave a number of famous examples of the need to set aside lower laws in a time of crisis. According to St. John Henry Cardinal Newman, at that time, a majority of the world’s bishops, and even the pope were compromised with the heresy, that Jesus was not truly God. A majority of the bishops and even the pope are compromised by this very critical heresy. Because of the rapid confusion in the Church, good Catholics had to do things, which in ordinary times would have been wrong. But these were not ordinary times. St. Basil the Great speaking of this time, says, the laity who are sound in their faith; because at that period, many of the laity had more faith than the bishops and Pope. And so the laity, so this again, this is St. Basil the Great writing, who’s a doctor of the Church, right, said the laity who are sound and their faith, avoid the places of worship, avoid their Churches, as schools of impiety. Because their churches, their cathedrals and their parishes have become schools of impiety, because heresy is being taught there. And it says he’s saying the laity avoid those places, and raise their hands in solitudes in wilderness, they have to go to other places, with groans and tears to the Lord in heaven. And St. Athanasius, who was excommunicated by hundreds of bishops, and even the pope, preached and celebrated the sacraments, an ordained priest, when and where he did not have permission, things he would never do in Ordinary Time. But in this crisis, he had to obey a higher law. And he was once considered disobedient, is now called a saint, and even a doctor of the Church. So what applies even in the Church in normal times, might not be what we need to do in times of crisis. And so that leads me to the third point because a number of people are wondering if, with what we published a couple of days ago, if we are being disobedient. And so I want to reflect on that, on the importance of obedience. And I think the key question is to ask disobedient to who. Because what is absolutely essential is to always be obedient to God. There’s no reason to not be obedient to God. But there can be circumstances in which we are not called to be obedient to human authorities, under certain conditions. Obedience is very important, obedience to the Church authorities is very important. And we have many heroic examples in the lives of the saints, like St. Faustina, who, even when the Lord told her something in her interior, and her superiors told her to do something else, the Lord told her that she should follow what her superiors were saying. Padre Pio is another great example of heroic obedience to the authorities. And we have tried to live that in all these years of this 30 years, in 20 some years, we’ve been started as a community and seven years when we begin receiving messages directly in our community. But it’s important to distinguish the obedience to God, and the obedience of man. We should always be obedient to God, there’s no, there’s no reason not to be obedient to God. But obedience to human authorities, even Church authorities, is always limited. It’s always under certain circumstances. And I want to share with you all, this was a message that Sister received in 2018. It was a message on obedience, I’ll just share an excerpt from it. But it was a message that the Lord had us give, share with our Archbishop in 2018. So it says, “Children, there is an extreme difference between the obedience given to men and the obedience given to me. Human obedience is established to protect and guide to obedience to God. So human obedience is for obedience to God, always one that should predispose to the other, the inferior one to the greater one, not the other way around, as often happens. For whom does authority come from, from whom does it proceed, from me, your God and Lord sovereign over all, there is no greater authority than mine unless I order something different. The human order is followed by means of obedience to one’s legitimate superiors. But I can and do ask for other acts of obedience directly to me, when I give particular missions, or when I ask someone to communicate my words to my children. I am God, and I can do whatever I want. Everything that I’ve established in my church is directed to the fulfillment of my will, of my plans for the good of my children. And I ordinarily make use of this.” That He wants us to ordinarily follow the structure that He has set up. “But precisely in the following of these plans of mine, I asked for other acts of obedience, that in appearance are outside of the established order, but that in reality are part of the same plan of my will. If my children would only listen to me more attentively, they would be able to recognize clearly these instances. Children, I your Jesus always obeyed the Father, our Abba.” And so Jesus always obeyed His Father, and everything that was not opposed to this greater and fundamental obedience, he obeyed the established order. So if it wasn’t opposed to His obedience to the Father, He did obey the human authorities. But we so let’s look at this example of Jesus. We have an example in the Gospel today, where the Jews say; (the Jews, that was the leaders of the temple), What sign can you show us for doing this? So obviously, they were saying, Jesus, you’re not being obedient. Did you come and ask us permission to do this? Did Jesus do that, did he ask the authorities, “do you mind if I overthrow these tables?” He didn’t do that. And so Jesus’ attitude is that they should not need a sign. It should be clear to them that this is wrong. The sign is that there is the evil that is very apparent. And then Luke’s Gospel, right after the account of the cleansing of the temple. Here’s what follows. He says one day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes and elders came up. Okay, so this is the authorities, the religious authorities, and said to him, “tell us by what authority you do these things? And who was it that gave you this authority? What right do you have to do this?” We’re the ones in charge of this place, we’re the ones in charge of the whole nation, we’re the ones in charge of our religion, who are you to be doing this? And so what does Jesus do? Remember, he asked them another question. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men? And they didn’t want to answer it. Because they didn’t want to admit it. Who was the baptism of John from? It wasn’t from them. John didn’t go and ask them for permission to baptize. Who was it from? It was from God. Who isJesus’ authority coming from here? It’s not coming from the chief priests. It’s not coming from the religious authorities. It’s coming directly from His Father. I’ll share with you another passage from that message on obedience. Much can be said of true obedience, but it’s enough to look and reflect that how I lived it, the living example that I have given to as teaching. So Jesus is the great example of how we are called to live obedience. Reflect on how I acted when I was 12 years old, remaining in the temple. I obeyed the voice of the Father, who called me to give witness before the doctors of the law, disobeying my parents on earth, and reflecting on who they were, their holiness. And despite that, and this instance, there was a greater obedience. So here, we’re not talking about evil authorities. There were no holier authorities than St. Joseph and our Blessed Mother. And Jesus, the gospel says most of His life, he was submissive to them. But there was one moment in which He had to act by His Father’s will. And so here Jesus was disobeying even His holy parents because there was a greater authority that He had to obey. But then again, that this is not a call for young people to disobey your parents, right? Because Jesus did that one time because He knew His Father was asking Him, but normally He was obedient. But this was a special circumstance. I obey during the long years of the private hidden life as any other faithful, fulfilling the requisites of the law fulfilling my duties as a citizen. So Jesus lived the obedience of the human authorities. But then the moment arrived to begin the mission of the redemption, entrusted it to me by divine command. And then I obeyed only the voice of my father, because the first obedience had passed. And now I was instituting the perfect obedience. Jesus was not being less obedient. When he didn’t obey the authorities to the temple, He was being perfectly obedient, obedient to the Father, because I was instituting the perfect obedience based on faith and in love, and not in the simple fulfillment of precepts. And so Jesus disobeyed the human authority, the human religious authorities, when told not to heal on the Sabbath, or forgive sins, or to preach in a temple, or to preach in his father’s name. And where did that lead to, of course, it led to His condemnation by those same authorities. St. Thomas Aquinas, who gives the occasions where a subject is not obliged to obey his superior in all things, says, if there’s a command of a higher power, of a higher authority. For instance, in the military, for instance, if a soldier gets a command from the captain, and then a general comes along, while the general might give a different order, and the soldier has to obey the higher authority. And there’s a famous example of this in St. Joan of Arc. This young woman who was given by God these voices, these voices began speaking to her. And they called her to lead the army. And so later on when she was captured, and she is in an ecclesial tribunal. So it’s a bishop leading this tribunal, trying Joan of Arc, and they don’t give Joan of Arc any. So this young girl with all these experts in canon law, and Joan of Arc has no lawyer representing her. And so they’re asking her all these questions. And so this is from her responses, transcribed from that, so taken transcript of what she’s saying – what the Lord has told her, she will not for any man alive cease to do. In the event of the Church, wishing her to do otherwise against the bidding of our Lord – because the bishop who was leading this was a terrible Bishop, but he was the bishop -she would not obey for anything. She would not obey for anything, were an event of the church asking her to do something against the bidding of the Lord. Asked whether she would submit to the Church if the Church Militant, that is the church here on earth, said that her revelations were false and devilish things, superstitious and evil? She answered that she would submit to our Lord whose bidding she will ever perform. And she knows that the happenings described in the proceedings were done at His bidding, and it would be impossible for her to do other than what she declared she has done at God’s bidding. If the Church Militant told her to do otherwise, she would submit to none other than our Lord, who is good bidding she always performed. Ased if she believes she is subject to the Church on earth. namely our Holy Father, the Pope, the Cardinals, Archbishops, bishops and other prelates, she answered yes, but our Lord being first served. So she’s obedient to them, except in what contradicts God’s will. And of course, for that she was condemned, she was excommunicated, and burned at the stake. And then later on canonized as a saint. And we know the famous example of the apostles, when they’re imprisoned and brought before the council, the Sanhedrin, the grant of Great Sanhedrin, the ultimate authority, ultimate religious authority of the Jews. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priests questioned them, saying, We strictly charged you not to teach in this name. So we the authorities, the highest authorities, the highest religious authorities, have strictly told you not to do this, not to preach in his name. Yet here you are filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. And Peter, and the apostles answered, we must obey God rather than men. We must obey God rather than men. So we should obey legitimate authorities, civil and Church authorities, except when under certain conditions, when it’s legitimate, and sometimes even necessary to disobey them because of a higher law, the command of the Lord. And I want to share this, this was from a message that the Lord gave at some point, gave to sister for certain shepherds of the Church. It says, (because I think it’s a vision of how the Lord sees the situation), “Open your eyes to the situation in the Church, my sons, open your eyes and see how I see. Open your eyes, and my everlasting truth that you might see what is truly before you, what is truly unfolding before your eyes here and now. My Church is besieged on every side, do you not sense it in your souls? Can you not feel the pain of my children, as they cry out to me for help? It is not their bellies, or the bodies or their minds crying out to me, but their souls, their souls sense the horror that is enveloping, by once radiant, church, radiant, and the instant it came forth on the pierced heart of my Jesus, but how darkened she has become., you have become dull, blind and asleep, and can no longer see the hordes of wolves and serpents that are surrounding and attacking my sheep, maiming them, scattering them and consuming them.” So it’s not saying that these shepherds that it’s this has been addressed to, are evil, but it’s saying that they become dull and blind and asleep. The enemy has succeeded in overtaking my sanctuary. What do I mean by this? The eternal enemy, satan and his cohort have successfully placed His servants in places of authority in my church. So it’s very grave. That through them, he might subvert my truth, my teachings, turning them into a mockery, and thus leaving my children bereft of the usual means for them to receive my grace. What I see instead of the living, beautiful, holy, mystical body of my Jesus is a near dead corpse, already so decayed, it is falling apart. So those are very strong words, because you have been blinded and cannot see, I must tell you that what you think is whole healthy, is in reality being consumed by a demonic cancer, my church has been taken hostage. So again, those are very strong words. But the prophets have sometimes had to say, as Jesus had to say, some very strong words. So to summarize that point about obedience. I think this is manifesting. This is what the Lord has been saying to us for a long time that the church is in an extreme crisis. And so what is essential in this time, sometimes the normal, the normal way of proceeding and normal rules will always apply what we must do above all in this time, is to obey God. And so in conclusion, so, finally, finally, we’re going to end. So, to summarize this, all this whole message, so the grace of prophecy is to help us see with God’s perspective, the dangers of the situation. God needs to cleanse His temple and is speaking to us, because that’s a difficult process, but it’s speaking to us to give us the light, hope and encouragement we need during this. So Jesus talks about the temple, the temple of His body, and His mystical body also of Jesus talks about the temple of his body, suffering and being destroyed. And so the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ is called to follow the same path of the Passion of Jesus. And I think we’re living that right now. It will seem like the destruction of our Church, but then what is Jesus say, then I will raise it up, not your human effort. But I Myself will raise that up. And I think this trial, this terrible trial of the Lord is, is well that the Church is experiencing is very hard. But it’s not the end, and the destruction of the Church and the annihilation the Church, though it might seem like that it’s time, but it’s to lead to the Great Divine renewal of the Church. And so in this time, He’s asking us to hold on to our faith in Jesus. What do we need for this? Very simply, to hold on to our faith in Jesus, Jesus, we trust in You. Amen.
KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
John 2:13-25