Daily Gospel Reflection
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March 3, 2024
Since the Passover of the Jews was near,
Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves,
as well as the money changers seated there.
He made a whip out of cords
and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen,
and spilled the coins of the money changers
and overturned their tables,
and to those who sold doves he said,
“Take these out of here,
and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”
His disciples recalled the words of Scripture,
Zeal for your house will consume me.
At this the Jews answered and said to him,
“What sign can you show us for doing this?”
Jesus answered and said to them,
“Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”
The Jews said,
“This temple has been under construction for forty-six years,
and you will raise it up in three days?”
But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
Therefore, when he was raised from the dead,
his disciples remembered that he had said this,
and they came to believe the Scripture
and the word Jesus had spoken.
While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,
many began to believe in his name
when they saw the signs he was doing.
But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all,
and did not need anyone to testify about human nature.
He himself understood it well.
As the mother of a toddler, I find myself inclined to question Jesus for what seems like an overreaction. Don’t we constantly tell our children to ask nicely, say please, and use their words rather than their hands, let alone if they made a whip of cords?
Of course, Jesus’ behavior is far from a divine temper tantrum. Conditioned to our highly individualistic consumer culture, it’s easy for us to forget the deeply sacred significance of the temple and the communal authority it represented. Even those running the temple at the time had let their reverence wane, allowing the idolatry of money into this sacred space.
Jesus’ reaction, strong as it is, shows us how deeply he cares about his Father’s house because it is the meeting place between God and his people. God reaches out to us and longs for us to respond. To do that, we need to make space to clear out the “marketplaces” of distraction and sin.
Today, we have something even better than the temple: God with us in the church, sacraments, and especially in the Eucharist. Deepening our sense of that sacred reality can transform our experience at Mass. It might urge us to genuflect a little more slowly before our Lord in the Tabernacle, to put more intention into the responses during Mass, or to spend a few moments in quiet prayer before we leave.
God has revealed to us in the Book of Proverbs, “[I have] my delight with human beings.” Do we delight to be with God? Do we desire to approach God with love and attention? The model par excellence of this is Notre Dame our Mother, who “kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” Let us ask our Lady to pray for us today to hold sacred space in our hearts for the love of God, to reflect quietly rather than give into the noise of the world.
Prayer
Good and loving God, in a world full of office buildings, stores, businesses, and factories, you give us the gift of churches, sanctuaries where we can better learn to see your presence among us. Enkindle our hearts with zeal for your house! That all people may marvel at the God who chooses to have his house among us. We ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Katharine Drexel voluntarily stepped beyond her privileged upper-class life in Philadelphia to encounter and heal the suffering she saw in America. She is the second American-born Catholic saint.
She was born 1858 to a family of wealth—her father was an investment banker, and her uncle founded Drexel University. Her mother died giving birth to Katharine’s sister, and the girls were sent to live with an aunt and uncle for two years. They returned to her father’s home when he re-married.
Despite their wealth, Katharine’s parents did not allow their girls a sheltered life. The family traveled widely, and Katharine saw much of the emerging American nation as well as Europe. Three days a week, their home was opened to feed the hungry and serve the poor with clothing and rental assistance. If they heard of a widow who was too proud to come to them, they quietly sought her out to offer their support.
When Katharine’s stepmother fell ill from a terminal illness, Katharine nursed her, and began to understand that no fortune could save a person from pain or death.
She was particularly moved by the plight of Native Americans and African Americans, and on a trip to Europe, she had the chance to greet Pope Leo XIII. She asked him to send missionaries to help Native Americans in Wyoming. He replied, “Why don’t you become a missionary?” This response shocked her and helped her open up new possibilities as to how to spend her life.
She very easily could have married, but after discernment and spiritual direction, she decided to dedicate her life to serving Native American and African American people. Her decision made big news in the elite social circles of Philadelphia; newspapers wondered how she could walk away from married life and an inheritance worth more than $100 million in today's dollars—to serve poor people.
Katharine founded a religious order of nuns—the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament—to serve people marginalized by American society. They began with a boarding school in Santa Fe, and by 1942, they were running schools and mission centers for black children in thirteen states and ministering to Native Americans in fifteen states. In 1915, Katharine opened Xavier University in New Orleans, the first Roman Catholic university in the nation that accepted black students.
Segregationists were not happy with her efforts and burned a school in Pennsylvania. A stick of dynamite was discovered at another mission site. In 1922, the Ku Klux Klan threatened a school the sisters had opened in Beaumont, Texas, but a few days later, a severe thunderstorm devastated the area and tore down the Klan’s headquarters there.
When she was 77, Katharine suffered a heart attack and was forced to retire. Many thought the foundress was near the end of her life, but she lived for nearly two more decades. This last period of life was intensely focused on prayer and meditation.
St. Katharine Drexel was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2000. Along with her story, the illustration featured today is used by high school students who come to campus for a summer conference with the Notre Dame Vision program.
St. Katharine Drexel, who gave her great wealth to serve America's marginalized—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Katharine Drexel is an illustration by Julie Lonneman, who holds exclusive rights to the further distribution and publication of her art. Used with permission.