The Feast of the Lord’s House

Pastor’s Column

Saint John Lateran

November 9, 2025

“He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the area.”

(John 2:13-22)

How can it be that we find Jesus in this Sunday’s gospel with a whip in his hand, driving people out of the temple? It somehow seems uncharacteristic of him. Usually, we tend to think of Jesus as “gentle and humble of heart” (Matthew 11:28) or as “the good shepherd” (John 10). Thus, it is instructive to see what would drive Jesus to act in this way.

The Jerusalem temple was filled with pilgrims making animal sacrifices at Passover. They came from all over the known world and had coins from different nations, most with false gods or pagan images that would have needed exchanging. Each would also have had to procure an animal and have it judged for purity. It doesn’t take much imagination to picture the crowds, the smells, the shouting, the buying, selling, and money-changing going on in the Court of the Gentiles, the very place where non-Jews were meant to experience, at least at a distance, a sense of the one true God. Instead, they found this cacophony of selling, cheating, and profit-taking.  

All of this could have been done outside the temple precincts, but the religious leaders found that having these vendors inside the temple courtyard area increased their profits, since the temple authorities got a commission. Besides all this, there was quite a bit of cheating going on, as well as taking advantage of pilgrims who were simply trying to observe the requirements of the law or pray in relative quiet.

Jesus was consumed with fury when he saw how the temple, his father’s house had been turned into a corrupt profit-making scheme. And in the same way, Jesus is equally zealous about the temple that is his Church. This Sunday reminds us that the Catholic Church is his temple, and especially our church, Saint Edward – Jesus has an extraordinary interest in everything we do. And we too, are his temple; he wishes to purify the temple within us too.

Everything we do at Mass, whether it be decor, music, liturgy, lecturing, Eucharistic Ministry, our attendance, our worship and the liturgy itself ought to be done as excellently as possible, because it really is the Lord’s house, and the Lord takes an extraordinary interest in it. Though there is always room for improvement, this is what we strive to do at Saint Edward. The Lord also is zealous about the temple that is our soul. If he finds things within our hearts that should not be there, like the capital sins of pride, envy, lust, greed, sloth, anger, or covetousness, he will desire greatly to rid our lives of these things. Remembering that our eternal soul is the sanctuary of God, everything we do for him should be done excellently.      

Father Gary