The Temple is a place of prayer. Jesus Christ cannot stand the situation in which the temple of Jerusalem finds itself.

 The Temple is a place of prayer. Jesus Christ cannot stand the situation in which the temple of Jerusalem finds itself. What should be a place of communion with God has become an environment of thieves, exploiters, and merchants. In the temple, the primary interest was no longer communion with God, but profit, and therefore the incessant search for the presence of those who had money. Corruption had taken over the most sacred place in Israel. What should be God’s domain has become Satan’s place. Injustice and impunity reigned in the temple.

2. Jesus advances, without half measures, in the fight against this reality that is hostile to God, the game of self-interest and exploitation of others. He does not fear being persecuted, nor does he seek social respect or political agreements to the detriment of the salvation of the human being; his being is entirely for the Father and his entire life is to make God’s what is God’s. The temple belongs to the honor and glory of the Lord. He is zealous for what belongs to the Father. Jesus is not afraid to confront the powerful of the temple, those who, with false religiosity, manipulated everything for themselves. Jesus' action provoked the vanity of the rulers of the temple, who had no doubts about decreeing his death.

3. Jesus' action aims to give the temple its primary purpose, to make it return to its purpose: it is a house of prayer; it is the place of communion with God and with brothers; it is the environment where inner transformation is possible; it is the place of new life, of refreshment, of encouragement coming from God in the most difficult difficulties suffered; it is the place of hope.

4. According to Luke, Jesus taught "every day in the temple" (19:47). Jesus exercised his ministry of preaching the Word of God where previously disorderly profit was preached; Jesus taught to invest in others, so that they could always be better and find their salvation; But in the temple, before, it was taught that the other is important as long as he has something to offer, as long as he has what one needs financially. Jesus taught detachment, but the powerful in the temple did everything to have everything. Jesus taught love for the simplest, the poorest, but in the temple, the powerful gave places of honor to the powerful and the last place to the needy children of God. Jesus taught what he always was: a servant, simple, a lover of life, truth, love and peace. In the temple, they taught power, possession, the destruction of life for profit, lies, division, war (certainly as a consequence of the search for oneself). Indeed, this temple should be destroyed. Jesus wants to build the new temple of his Body, therefore, a new people, a new Covenant.

5. The leaders of the Temple wanted to kill Jesus. The great difficulty encountered in this was the love of the people for the prophet, who announced the truth, loved those people and denounced the abuses of power and the manipulation of the reality desired by God for the liberation of all. The people saw in Jesus their liberator, a new hope; they found in Him TRUTH, LOVE AND LIFE. Even today, despite everything that the Church has lived and preached, many continue to want to kill Jesus in the same way.

What kind of temples are we? Does the Spirit of God truly dwell within us? Are we instruments of God’s revelation or of the world’s most vile interests? Do we serve God or ourselves? Do we use the Temple for the honor and glory of the Lord or as a place of commerce? Is the environment where we find ourselves a place of God’s presence?