Discussion Questions

First Reading

Exodus 20:1-17

F1. If there were ten commandments, why would Jesus say that there were only two? Why is love––love God and love your neighbor––the basis of all the others?

F2. Why do you think the Ten Commandments have survived all the way from the time of Moses? Is there more in each one than we ordinarily see? For instance, could respect for life be extrapolated from “Thou shalt not kill.” Try some others.

Second Reading

1 Corinthians 1:22-25

S1. After Jesus drives out the money changers in the Gospel, the people ask: “What sign can you show us for doing this?” What did Paul proclaim as the sign and the wisdom for those who are called? Without faith would you recognize a vulnerable, rejected Christ as the wisdom of God?

S2. To what do the “foolishness” and “weakness” of God refer? St. Paul says the Jews had a problem accepting Christ crucified. What about you: how do you accept him? And what about the crosses in your own life? Are they “stumbling blocks” or stepping stones for you?

Gospel

John 2:13-25

G1. “And to those who sold doves he said, take these out of here.” If we take the “marketplace” out of our Church, what could we put in its place? Classes and homilies that help us love God? Activities that spread that love to others? Feed the hungry, pass living wage bills, fix climate change, end racial bias?

G2. Jesus doesn’t want our hearts to be places of turmoil, disorder and confusion. What does Pope Francis say needs to be cleansed from them? With the help of Jesus, how do we do that?

In the Gospel reading we have just heard (Jn 2:13-25), we see how Jesus drove out from the Temple in Jerusalem the moneychangers and all the buyers and sellers. Why did Jesus do something this forceful and provocative? He did it because the Father sent him to cleanse the temple: not only the Temple of stone, but above all the temple of our heart. Jesus could not tolerate his Father’s house becoming a marketplace (cf. Jn 2:13-25). …

Our heart must be cleansed, put in order and purified. Of what? Of the falsehoods that stain it, from hypocritical duplicity. … We need the baneful temptations of power and money to be swept from our hearts and from the Church. To cleanse our hearts, we need to dirty our hands, to feel accountable and not to simply look on while our brothers and sisters are suffering. How do we purify our hearts? By our own efforts, we cannot; we need Jesus. He has the power to conquer our evils, to heal our diseases, to rebuild the temple of our heart.

Pope Francis homily 3rd Sun of Lent
Apostolic Journey to Iraq, March 7, 2021

Anne Osdieck

**From Saint Louis University