Question: Why did Jesus say he was greater than the Temple?
Answer: The apostle tells us: "Each of you is a temple of the Holy Spirit." Every human being is a temple. Some temples are built by people and consecrated as houses of the Lord. Other temples of God are not built by hand.
So we are all temples built by God. Our bodies are temples; but when we do not let in the Spirit of God but allow sin to take its place, we desecrate our temples and turn them into vegetable storage facilities, as they liked to do with the Churches in our recent history. David the Psalm-singer says so. Of course, it is hard for us to live with the constant sense that we are temples of the spirit, and sometimes we become too complacent.
Why are the Pharisees spiritually blind?
Their spiritual blindness is in their preoccupation with observing formal written rules. There is nothing inappropriate about following the rules, and God does not condemn it. But when there is no Spirit in following the letter of the law, sin becomes inevitable. The Pharisees were called to teach the people how to accept Christ and how to prepare for it. But they ran into opposition with God because their teachings were of this world, but the Lord's were from Heaven.
The teachings from Heaven are hard for us to follow because many things still liken us to the Pharisees. In different situations of our lives, each of us may act like Pharisees, Robbers, or Publicans. But we must remember to return to Christ; we must be forward-looking and know how we live and for what. We must not let ourselves stray too far from Christ.
Inevitably, we divert from God's way, but we always come back. Some ramble too far. Imagine mushroom hunting and losing your way. In this situation, some may be tempted to take a shortcut back. But that only worsens their lot: they usually find themselves going even deeper into the thicket. When you lose your way, do not look for an easy way out, but go back to the point where you took the wrong turn. Taking shortcuts will not help.
In our lives, we pursue many projects and undertakings, in which we invest a lot of our effort. But sometimes, we realise that we are going in the wrong direction. If that happens to you, go back to the beginning and start again. Do not have any regrets, for our life is a book of many chapters. When a chapter is over, there is nothing more to add to it.
So turn over the page and begin a new chapter, do not try to add, or correct the old one. It does not make any sense. Start from a new page and continue writing your book of life, for it is a story in progress. Let us pray for the men at our farmsteads trying to overcome their alcohol problems. Join us for the Liturgy.
