THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT YEAR B
3rd/4th March 2018


Dear Parishioner

This week's readings from Holy Scripture teach us that Lent is the ideal time for cleaning out the Temple of our own hearts and to offer to God proper Divine worship by obeying the Ten Commandments. They also teach us that our New Covenant with God demands that we should keep our parish Church holy and our Divine worship vibrant by our active participation in the liturgy with hearts cleansed by repentance, and holy by allowing the Holy Spirit to control our hearts and lives.

The first reading teaches us that the Ten Commandments are the basis of our religious and spiritual life. Instead of restricting our freedom, the Commandments really help us to love and respect our God and our neighbours.

The second reading reminds us that we must appreciate the Divine "foolishness" of the crucified Christ and obey His commandment of love as expression of our Divine worship. Today's Gospel gives us the dramatic account of Jesus' cleansing the Temple of its merchants and money-changers, followed by a prediction of his death and Resurrection. The synoptic Gospels place the "cleansing of the Temple" immediately after Jesus' triumphant arrival in Jerusalem on the back of a colt on Palm Sunday, while John places it at the beginning of his Gospel. Jesus cleansed the Temple which King Herod began to renovate in 20BC. The abuses which kindled the prophetic indignation of Jesus were the conversion of God's Temple into a "noisy market place" by the animal merchants and into a "hideout of thieves" by the money-changers with their grossly unjust business practices - sacrilege in God's Holy Place. Jesus' reaction to this commercialized Faith was fierce. Since no weapons were allowed inside the Temple, Jesus had to construct his own weapon, a whip of cords to drive out the merchants and money-changers from the Court of the Gentiles.

Let us be in the temple of god with hearts pure to love and be loved by God.

Fr Sabu Pariyadan RCJ

SEND, O LORD: HOLY APOSTLES INTO YOUR CHURCH


Notices:

Please remember to pray for:

Daily for the sick clergy of our Diocese

The sick and housebound

Those who have recently died

Years Mind:
Sunday: Mgr Patrick O'Donnell, Fr Brian Galvin, Fr Francis Hastings
Monday: Fr Malachy Kelly
Thursday: Fr Joseph Whitfield
Friday: Fr Thomas Lawton, Fr John Gordon
Saturday: Fr Edmund Meyer, Fr Maurice Roche, Mgr David Michael Corley


Next Sunday - FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT (B)

First Reading: 2 Chronicles 36:14-16
The wrath and mercy of God are revealed in the exile and in the release of his people.

Second Reading: Ephesians 2:4-10
You who were dead through your sins have been saved by grace.

Gospel: John 3:14-21
God sent his Son so that through him the world might be saved.