Praise be to Jesus Christ

 

How was your week?  I hope God’s blessings flow down to each and every one of you who have been observing Lent dutifully.  

 

Typically we observe Lent through alms giving, prayer, and fasting.  We normally can cleanse ourselves through fasting. 

 

Pope Francis particularly asked us to focus on fasting:  

 

• Abstain from rude remarks, only use gentle words
• Abstain from complaining, fill your hearts with thanks
• Abstain from anger, fill you self with peace and patience
• Abstain from pessimism, be optimistic
• Abstain from lamenting and sighing, experience the joy from simplicity in life
• Abstain from stress, fill with prayers
• Abstain from sadness, fill your hearts with happiness
• Abstain from self-interest, exercise compassion
• Abstain from revenge and disrespect, fill with forgiveness and reconciliation 
• Abstain from words, be generous with silence and listening

 

In today’s gospel Jesus purified the temple: “And when he made something like a whip out of little cords, he drove them all out of the temple.” (John 2:15)  Jesus drove out moneychangers and others who made the temple into a market place.  The temple is a holy place of prayer and the house of God.  We also need to ensure our church is a holy place.  

 

Our body is also God’s holy temple.  We receive Jesus through communion.  We receive Holy Spirit through baptism and confirmation.  We need to maintain our bodies holy and clean.  During the remaining Lenten season, we must abstain from pessimism so we may purify ourselves.  

 

Let us meditate for a moment.