Navarre Bible Commentary:Friday, 33rd Week in Ordinary Time

Cleansing of the Temple by El Greco

Luke 19:45–48

And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.”

And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people sought to destroy him; but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people hung upon his words.    

Catholic Exegesis:

The Second Vatican Council teaches  that if we are to derive the true meaning from the sacred texts,  attention must be devoted “not only to their content but to the unity of the whole of Scripture, the living tradition of the entire Church, and the analogy of faith. […] Everything to do with the interpretation of Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgment of the Church, which exercises the divinely conferred communion and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God” (Dei Verbum, 12).

St. John Paul II, when he promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church,  explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium."  He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum).

Cited in the Catechism:

Passages from this Gospel reading are not cited in the Catechism; however, passages from the parallel reading in John 2:13-22 are cited in paragraphs 575, 583, 584, 586 and 994.

Commentary:

Jesus in the temple

19:45–48. Jesus’ indignation shows his zeal for the glory of his Father, to be recognized at this time in the temple itself. He inveighs against the traders for engaging in business which has nothing to do with divine worship (cf. Mt 21:12; Mk 11:15). Even the priests allowed some of these abuses to go on—perhaps because they benefitted from them in the form of taxes. The traders did perform services necessary for divine worship but this was vitiated by their excessive desire for gain, turning the temple into a marketplace.

“My house shall be a house of prayer”: Jesus uses these words from Isaiah (56:7; cf. Jer 7:11) to underline the purpose of the temple. Jesus’ behaviour shows the respect the temple of Jerusalem deserved; how much more reverence should be shown our churches, where Jesus himself is really present in the Blessed Eucharist (cf. the notes on Mt 21:12–13; and Mk 11:15–18).

Additional Reading:

For additional commentary on the parallel passage in the Gospel of St. John, please review the commentary for the Feast, Dedication of the Lateran Basilica.

Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

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