Homily: Third Sunday of Lent 2012 (cycle B)

I wonder at times if we haven't become a bit cynical.  Think about it... Consider all the time and in all the ways that we look for "proof."  Every time you turn on the TV there is a new study that tells you that eating less and exercising more is good for you.  Did we really need another study to prove that to us?  How often do you hear people disagreeing on some topic and the only way to solve it is some form of proof.  There are even stores now that require anyone of any age to prove that they are older than 21 to purchase alcohol.  My mother doesn't drink but she loves getting carded.


I think the way that we look at life is very heavily based on what we think can be proven.  Consider the Gospel that we hear today (John 2:13-25).  How often to we hear this Gospel reading and think, "Ah ha! There it is... Jesus got angry and so we can be sure that he was human.  We have proof!"


But is that what this Gospel reading is about?  No, it is not about proving Jesus' humanity at all.  This Gospel reading is about Jesus' authority.


The temple was the center and the focus of Jewish life.  The idea was that God was to be found in the temple and so the rituals and the teaching of the temple officials was the highest authority in the Jewish religion and in the life of the individual Jewish people.  And so the actions that Jesus took, by disrupting the normal activities of the temple was a sign that He was claiming a tremendous amount of authority.  He was claiming absolute authority over the temple.  This was no "half-measure"  Jesus was claiming authority over the temple and those who sought to find God there.


In response the temple elders asked for proof, they asked for a sign (the Biblical way of saying "proof") to show that Jesus had authority to do this.  In stead of talking about the temple He referred to himself.  He said, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up!"  The Gospel tells us that he was referring to himself and his body.  Jesus actually substitutes himself for the temple in this conversation.


What Jesus is saying (and the people did not understand) was that he was God and that in Him we are now supposed to encounter God.  This Gospel story is much more about his divinity than some type of proof of his humanity.


Jesus cast out those who made the temple a place of commerce just as in the first reading (Exodus 20:1-17) we hear God demand that we not have any idols before Him.  God wants to be the center of our lives.  God wants to have authority over us.  God loves us, He gave us life, and it is His will that we live in a way that places Him as the supreme authority in our lives.


How often do we hear this request, how often do we consider God's will, how often we do evaluate those things that have authority over us?  Have we ever dared to abandon ourselves to the sovereign will of God?  Have we ever dared to live that fearful freedom that comes from abandoning ourselves to God?


I think our natural reaction to the command to have "no other idols before me" is simply, "prove it."  We often say to God, "Prove to me why I should give you authority over my life!"  We say this same thing to almost everything.  Teenagers say it to their parents, our nation says it to political candidates, and we say it to God.


St. Paul confronts this request for proof directly in the second reading (1 Corinthians 1:22-25).  He says that some people want a good explanation (wisdom) and some want a miracle (a sign).  Some want scientific proof and some want supernatural proof.   The proof that we have is Christ crucified.  It makes no sense to those who are looking for a scientific proof and it is confusing to those who want a supernatural miracle.


And yet Christ crucified is our proof.  It is our proof that God loves us.  It is our proof that God is the sovereign lord of all of creation.  It is all the proof that we need to give God authority over our lives.   A God who loves us so much that He would die for us on the Cross is a God that we can fearlessly abandon our lives to.