Third Sunday of Lent – 03rd March 2024
Often, we hear or perhaps even say that money is the root of all evil. However, this is not actually what scripture tells us. What it tells us is that the love of money is the root of all evil. There is absolutely nothing wrong with money, having money or spending money. When we work, we have the right to be paid a just and decent wage or salary. With the money we have rightly and deservedly earned, we can buy the basic necessities we and our families need to survive. What the first reading from the Book of Exodus and the gospel where Jesus drives the traders and money changers from the temple warns us about is the danger of putting our trust in money and wealth instead of trusting God.
We remember from the Old Testament that the Jewish People turned their back on God and began to worship a calf that they had made from gold. In the first reading God says to them, ‘You shall have no other gods except me.’ When the people were wandering in the desert, they lost faith in God and replaced it with faith in a statue made of gold. In the gospel, the traders and money-lenders turn the sacred temple in Jerusalem into a cheap market place. The temple had its own money, so people had to change their money for temple currency. They were often cheated and robbed by these money lenders. Then people needed animals for prayer and sacrifice; again, they were robbed and cheated. Jesus was justifiably angry and took the right action by throwing them out the temple; a sacred place of prayer and worship.