Sunday, March 3, 2024
There was a time when I used to tune into the late-night TV programs for laughs, and David Letterman was one of my favorite hosts. David was notorious for speeding and was caught and ticketed on multiple occasions in his home State of Connecticut and elsewhere. I remember him once saying in his monologue, “Traffic signals in New York are just rough guidelines.” Of course, this was a joke he made to laugh off his speeding incidents. People look at laws and rules and think that they are put in place to limit them. The Ten Commandments we read today are the foundation of our being. God gave them not to alienate or entrap us but to reveal Himself to us. They show us the nature of God and mandate standards for us to live by. The Commandments do not restrict our freedom but help us know and love our God and one another.
God created us to love and worship Him, but humanity strayed away as sin entered into our world. In today’s John’s Gospel, Jesus is angered when He sees how people dishonored God and turned the entrance to His dwelling place into a marketplace selling goods and exchanging money. God created a perfect world, revealed Himself to us then we, His creation, brought about sin, suffering, and evil into it. It is disheartening to live with a constant news stream of terrible things happening in this world. Grave atrocities are committed by people against one another. We all experience personal losses, calamities, and heartbreaks. Lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride separate us from the love of God and each other. Why didn’t God make us more perfect? Why does He allow evil to exist in the world? Why does He let bad things happen to us?
God could have made us like robots that worship Him. Robots that would do exactly what He would have us programmed to do. Would that have brought love, peace, and harmony to this world? Is that what heaven will be like after we die? No. Robots can’t love. Nor do they have a conscience, dignity, and free will. God made us, in His image, spiritual beings with intelligence and the power to make our own choices and to act freely. The Catechism says, “Man is dependent on his Creator, and subject to the laws of creation and to the moral norms that govern the use of freedom.” (Catechism §105). We put ourselves and our will over God and His will, as the Catechism says, therefore, against our own good. That is our tragic reality.
In John’s Gospel for today, Jesus, God incarnate, is truly the temple that people destroyed, but he foretold of His resurrection by saying He will raise it up in three days. God’s love and mercy sent Jesus to the world, and He died as a sacrifice for our sins so that we may have everlasting life with Him. Let us give thanks to our Lord for making us spiritual beings with the ability to do His will and love Him and others and for Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins.
Go in Peace to Love and Serve the Lord.