3RD SUNDAY HOMILY, YEAR B – LENT

3RD SUNDAY HOMILY, YEAR B – LENT

THEME: Treasure in Trash — Order in Disorder

BY: Fr Anthony Chukwuebuka Ohaekwusi

When you don’t clean a room for a long time, everything in it starts to look like a dumpster. It gets messy because nothing is tidy, everything is out of place. And do you know one thing? It’s so easy to make a mess, it doesn’t require any effort. But it is very difficult to put things in order, it takes a lot of effort. The treasures that we bring into the room later become the trash that we take out.

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The other day I watched some well-meaning Christians helping to clean the church. I saw their efforts to make sure everything was in order, with furniture moved here and there, books placed in different positions while vacuum cleaners sucked up dust and dirt. I admired the wisdom behind their sense of decency and the power behind their efforts and efficiency. I was amazed to see how something that was a mess became elegant in a matter of minutes. I realized that something is a mess when it is in the wrong place, but becomes a treasure when it is put in order. What distinguishes trash from treasure is the way we handle it. The things we value are trash in the wrong place. It only takes wisdom and power to clean them up. Behind every cleanup is wisdom and power: Wisdom tells you what is best to do, and power goes ahead doing it.

This power and wisdom is reflected in Jesus’ actions against those who defiled the temple with their business transactions. Jesus acted like a garbage collector, clearing the holy place of unwanted items. These items were treasures for these merchants, but at that moment they were not in the right place. So they lost their value. Let’s remember that Jesus knows the value of these treasures: he was born in a manger for cattle, doves were sacrificed during his presentation, in his teachings he extolled the good shepherd and told Peter to take coins from the fish for tax. But these treasures at this point lose their value because they are in the wrong places.

The house of God should be a house of prayer and not a business, because in business, nothing but personal interest matters. But the house of God is a community of love and worship. That’s why Jesus encourages us to clean up the mess, even if they look valuable. When everything is in order, their value is revealed, but when they are out of place, they lose their value. Just like money; a currency is valuable when it is used in the right place. In another country it is useless unless it is exchanged. So Jesus tells us today to put our homes in order, throwing away those useless treasures that distract us from the true values of life. He challenges us to bring order to our lives by destroying the temples of disordered treasures and building a life of integrity for the common good. Order is not created by power alone, which is why dictators are never good leaders. Wisdom alone cannot bring order either, as it is an empty idea if it is not activated by power. So we need both wisdom and power to purify our lives during this Lenten season. Jesus’ radical actions in the temple show how God’s foolishness surpasses human wisdom. For He is the personification of the wisdom and power of God that is expressed in the Ten Commandments, the dos and don’ts about how best to clean-up the trash of disorder from our lives.

Remain lifted and do have a great Sunday

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