Reflection for Friday, November 18, 2005: 33rd week in Ordinary Time.

Abstract

"Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out ||Those who were selling things, saying to them, |'It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, |But you have made it a den of thieves.' |And every day he was teaching in the temple area."|Today we see Jesus exercising righteous indignation. We don't see this behavior in Jesus very often. Today Jesus must have felt something like: "I've told them and told them, what My house is to be. And they just keep doing the same things that shouldn't be going on. It's too much." So he drives them out of the temple...and then he goes patiently back to teaching again.|I don't know about you, but for me the top issues in the news media these days seem to be getting worse. Every day we hear about corruption in business, mistreatment of human beings around the world, ways people who seem to be guilty get out of having to take responsibility for their actions, etc. It's certainly not a pretty sight.|According to most of us, these things are not supposed to be going on. If Jesus were walking the earth today, what would He be doing about this? What would He want us to do?|I can't really speculate on what Jesus would do, but He would find a way to continue to teach us by turning our attention to the ways to live a better life. He would teach in parables and give good examples. Those better ways are all around us. We know where they are.|The best we can do is to try to eradicate bad behaviors in our own lives. We need to be honest and truthful in our dealings with our families, in our work life, and our communities. We need to become self-less and help the less fortunate in our neighborhoods and communities. We need to take responsibility for our actions and live the way we know we are supposed to.|It takes courage to do that. I am old enough to remember the Christopher Motto: "It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness." Wouldn't it be great if each one of us today "lit a candle" to create more goodness in our lives? Each of us could do just one more simple act of kindness, or stand up for truth again, or give recognition to another for his/her good work, and give praise to God for God's goodness in our lives.|So today, think about lighting one more special candle for goodness and truth. We need your light in our darkness. Enjoy!