We come to now the third week of Lent and we find ourselves called to get back to the basics. We listen to the Lord our God giving the Ten Commandments. It reminds me of the basics of our faith. We we are preparing children for sacraments we teach often the basics of our faith. These basics for us on how we are created and called by God to live for Him and to be in right relationship with others.
The most basic truths of our faith and our living the Christian life can be found here. We are called to ultimately place the love and worship of God in the forefront of our lives. We remember that the love and worship of our God is the very foundation of our living. From this foundation we are called to live out our lives in relationship to others with respect, dignity and love. The foundation of our relationships begins with our parents and from the domestic church which in turn flows out to our neighbors, brothers and sisters all to seek to love them and show great integrity in living out our daily lives.
Last week we were on the mountain top with Jesus and his closest disciples as they experienced the magnificence of the Transfiguration of Jesus along with Elijah and Moses. Although a transforming and life changing experience Jesus reminds them that he has to return to Jerusalem. This is to place Jesus where he needs to be to ultimately fulfill His purpose in coming forth from the Father. Jesus’ glory on the mountain was only a glimpse of what His glory would be after His resurrection. But to get there He had to come down, set His direction to Jerusalem and Calvary.
Today we find Jesus in the temple and it is here as He begins to really get on fire for His mission, he starts to set things aright and call out the injustice and wrong doing taking place in His Father’s House. In driving out money lenders who have taken the temple, the place where God dwelled on earth and turning it into a market place, Jesus acting in justice drives them out as they were buying, selling and cheating.
You see like Jesus, our mountain top experience should be calling us forth, impelling us to act and seek righteousness and justice. That when we encounter the disregard and abuse of others we ought to be a voice that stands and says, No! We will not standby as people are disregarded in the midst of a humanitarian crisis, a human development pandemic as people struggle to live and exist.
Getting back to the basics allows us to re-examine and see how our lives reflect not only God’s design but also how we seek to help others live and achieve a life of dignity with access to medical care and vaccines, to affordable housing and mental health. To give people second chances when they’ve committed a minor offense. The faith that we are formed in is not for simply being able recite and remember the laws of God, but that God’s law be written on our hearts. For it is from this power of God’s love written on our hearts that we have the passion to stand for what is right going agains all odds. When we see the wrong and seek to make it right it is because we are impelled to do so out of our very call to be children of God. When we see others suffering, struggling and in need, we are moved to step up and make a difference. We together become. a voice for the voiceless, we stand together with those left on the peripheries and margins in society and work to bring about a more equitable society, where all are valued, all are respected and all have the opportunity to achieve lives of dignity and equality for themselves and their families.