Good Afternoon Families,
I hope you are all doing well and staying safe? This morning on the news a Dr. said that this could be the beginning of the end of the pandemic, let's just keep praying this is true. Just a few things before I get to this week's family lesson. March 15th we will be meeting in the church rather than by zoom, the 8th graders will be presenting Stations of The Cross. I am encouraging all of our families to attend, this is a beautiful Lenten practice to experience with others. I will send out a reminder next week.
Mr. Larry Lindholm announced this past Monday that he will be leaving the program after 12 years, he and his wife are moving to sunny Florida to be closer to their family. Please keep Mr. Lindholm and his wife in your prayers as they embark on this new journey of life. I know he has taught many students over the years and he will be missed!
I have begun discussions with Fr. Mark this week regarding next year, I am hoping that the restrictions are loosened and we can hold some sessions in person. Possibly twice a month or so and we will alternate grades in attendance, it will be nice to be face to face after being apart for so long.
In this Sunday's Gospel we read about how Jesus overturned the tables of the merchants and the moneychangers in the Temple at Jerusalem. In order to understand why Jesus reacted this way, we need to look at the activities that were going on in the temple area. Worship at the Temple in Jerusalem included animals being sacrificed, and merchants selling animals to worshipers. Moneychangers exchanged Roman coins, which bore the image of the Roman emperor, for the temple coins that were needed to pay the temple tax.
Jesus’ action at the Temple in Jerusalem is recorded in all four Gospels and is often understood to be among the events that led to Jesus’ arrest and Crucifixion. The Gospel of John, however, places this event much earlier in Jesus’ public ministry than do the Synoptic Gospels. In John’s Gospel this event occurs at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, after his first miracle at the wedding feast at Cana.
We must read the Gospel of John carefully, especially in its presentation of Jesus’ relationship to Judaism. The Gospel of John tends to reflect greater tension and animosity between Jesus and the Jewish authorities than the Synoptic Gospels. The Gospel of John was the last of the four Gospels to be written, and its narrative reflects the growing divide between the Jewish community and the early Christian community. Thus, greater emphasis on the distinction between Christianity and Judaism is found in John’s Gospel.
Reflecting upon the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem (A.D. 70), John recalls Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple and uses that story to interpret this later event. John explains to his audience, an early Christian community, that temple worship would no longer be necessary because it was surpassed in the passion, death, and Resurrection of Jesus. With greater frequency than the other Evangelists, John intersperses post-Resurrection reflections of this Christian community in his narrative.
After clearing the Temple of the merchants and the moneychangers, John’s Gospel tells us that the people asked for a sign of Jesus’ authority to do such an audacious act. In response, Jesus predicted his death and Resurrection. Throughout John’s Gospel, the language of signs is distinctive. Jesus’ miracles are called signs, and the people look to these signs for proof of his authority. Here we learn that the sign par excellence will be Jesus’ passion, death, and Resurrection.
During Lent we reflect upon the meaning of this sign for us and for our world. We might take this opportunity to consider the quality of our prayer and worship. In our prayers we seek to deepen our relationship with the person of Christ. In our worship with the community, we gather to experience anew the passion, death, and Resurrection of Jesus and its significance in our lives. Christ promises to be present with us when we gather for prayer.
![Above All [with lyrics] - Lenny LeBlanc](https://web-extract.constantcontact.com/v1/thumbnail?url=https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5_cxhf5ISeg/hqdefault.jpg)
