Kyrieeleison! O Lord, Have mercy! Kyrieeleison!
Today, we learn from the bible and church tradition that Christ taught in the temple for the last time talking with the scribes and Pharisees in parables about the Kingdom of heaven and the end times; and the Jews leader/priest didn't like it. The Pharisees and Sadducees came with so many malicious questions to trap Him. The Sadducees, who deny the resurrection, asks about the resurrection [Mt 22:33-40], He thought all of them warning all of us to keep watch and be ready. In general, the Church stresses the Second Coming, the end of the world and the urge to get ready. This is the day our Savior lovingly invites us to keep watching with our lamps lit.
He didn’t like the temple [body] they [Pharisees and Sadducees and us] built for Him to live. It has so much pride, ego, jealousy, hatred…feeling of loneliness, brokenness ..Then He started getting the drains right and stopped the leaking in the roof...and presently He starts knocking the house in a way that hurts and doesn’t make sense. The Pharisees were superficial, egotistical and self-centered and didn’t understand what He was doing. He was building a quite different house from the one they thought of… He was building a Palace. Because His desire and intention were to come and live in us.
"O Lord, I am sorry I have resisted when you try to fix me! I am sorry I always run to my old ways! The easy way. It is because I didn’t know better. Only You know, Lord, what a great good may soon break from my broken-heartedness if only I bring the pieces to You. Draw me away, O Lord! I am helpless, I want You to intervene on my behalf. Attract me to You. O Lord, for without You I can’t do anything! Do not leave me to my own will, my frail determination or my human ability for I am no much to the challenges of the world. I want You, O Lord, to knock down my pride, ego, jealousy.. feeling of loneliness, and want You to bring me out of this mess Yourself, for, without you, I simply can not."
Search me, O God, and know my heart:
Try me, and know my thoughts:
And see if there be any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.[Psalm 139]
God Bless
Dn Medhanie Haile