3rd Sunday of Lent, B March 3, 2024
Fr. Alexander Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
Zeal for your house consumes me. Does it, though? It’s possible to do the right thing without ever being zealous about it… even possible to do the right thing while avoiding zeal. Indeed, if you hear someone say, “oh, that girl? She’s a real zealot,” how do you think he intends that comment to be taken? As a compliment or a criticism?
Odds are he means it critically. He might not be wrong. Zeal can be dangerous. Just ask Saul; his zeal drove him to persecute the early Church and to cooperate in Stephen’s murder. Terrorism is zeal gone wrong. But does that make all zeal wrong? No. The Saul who zealously persecuted the Church became the Saint Paul who zealously traveled most of the known world to proclaim the gospel. Jesus makes a mess in today’s gospel, but would anyone here dare accuse Jesus of being a terrorist for what he did in the temple? I hope not!
So, what’s the difference? What does zeal even mean? Zeal is “the vehement movement of one who loves to secure the object of his love.” Zeal is vehement love, intense love. Not love as a feeling, but love that means to will the good of the other. Zeal is to work intensely for the good of the one you love. Yes, this often involves passion and deep emotion, but it’s ultimately a virtue, a capacity to consistently make the right choice, a habit that steps in even when emotion is lacking.
We can already see how that definition is different from the wrong kind of zeal. Society fears “zealots” because they see them as people who are so overwhelmed by their feelings that they act irrationally and therefore dangerously. But we now know that authentic zeal is about intensely choosing to love, not losing your ability to make choices.
Jesus turns over tables and makes a whip. How is that reasonable? Keep reading. He calmly explains to them why he did it. They don’t understand, but it’s clear that Jesus didn’t just give in to irrational anger. He saw something wrong in the temple and he loves the temple intensely. He consciously chooses to act forcefully. Forcefully, but not out of control, not merely indulging the pleasure of just blowing up on someone. So, we mustn’t dare use this passage to justify losing your temper. Jesus is zealous and dramatic, but he does not lose his temper.
And this is not the only example of zeal we see from Jesus. He connects this event to his death and resurrection for a reason. “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” Jesus chose to suffer and die for us, even though he sweat blood in the garden as he prepared to do it. He even prays for us while hanging on the cross. That is a zealous thing to do. It takes very intense love – not warm fuzzy love, but determined resolve – to be able to suffer and die and pray for the very people murdering you. Does this make Jesus a dangerous zealot?
Jesus teaches that “whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Fill that in with our understanding of zeal: whoever is not zealous enough to carry their cross is not worthy of me. Y’all, being Catholic… getting to heaven, being a good person… it’s not about being nice. It’s not just “caring” about God and other people. It’s about love… zealous love. In heaven, there is no such thing as lukewarm love. Either your love is zealous or it doesn’t exist. The opposite of love isn’t hatred, but complacency, lukewarmness, callousness. Put all that together and what do we get? The truth that either we learn to be zealous for God or we risk losing him altogether.
Okay, then, how do we let “zeal for [God’s] house” consume us? Many ways, but I’ll focus on one: rest. Yes, in order to make your love more intense and zealous, you need to rest! That’s a key part of why Jesus flips over the tables. They’re in God’s house, the place of restful worship, and what are they doing? Commerce, profit-seeking, work.
We’ve just heard the 10 commandments in our first reading. Most of them are a single verse or less. But the third commandment: keep holy the Sabbath? – it’s 4 verses, a quarter of the entire first reading. And how does God expect us to keep holy the sabbath? “You shall not do any work, either you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your work animal, or the resident alien within your gates.” Rest for us, our employees, and anyone else we can allow to rest.
You are here at Mass and that is awesome. The Church teaches very clearly that it’s a mortal sin to miss Mass on Sunday. But is that all we’re supposed to do? Does the commandment even mention going to Church? No, it doesn’t. Don’t think I’m saying you can skip Mass and take a nap! No, worship and rest are connected, but they are not the same thing. Mass is necessary and essential, but it is not enough.
If you want zeal – and you do need zeal – you’ll have to actually keep the Sabbath Holy, not just duck into a Church for 45 minutes and forget about it. Why? How can resting on Sundays increase my zeal? Because resting – deliberately choosing not to work to make money – is one of the best ways to kill those damn idols of wealth and power. And I use that word on purpose for its original meaning. Work is necessary. Money is necessary. The money changers in Jerusalem did necessary work. But they were doing in the wrong time and place! Jesus drove them out not because he hates them, but because he loves God’s house. He has zeal because knows how great God is. He knows that if we’re ever going to also see that glorious love, he’s going to have to drive out the distractions. So he does, even though people think he’s being foolish.
In our lives, it is absolutely essential that we drive out the idols that stop us from seeing. If your faith is lukewarm, if your idea of Christian love is just being polite and not rocking the boat, then perhaps you’ve got some money-changers in the temple of your heart. To know what’s in your heart, just take a look at your schedule.
Look, we go out of our way to make Mass accessible, offering Mass 8 hours before Sunday even starts and barely 2 hours before Sunday ends. It’s fine if you need those options to make it to Mass, but don’t forget to keep holy the sabbath, to truly rest in God’s goodness!
What does it mean to rest? God’s not saying you have to sit down and burn as few calories as possible. Jesus very specifically forbid us from getting too obsessed and technical. So, here’s a good rule of thumb: don’t do any profitable work on Sundays if at all possible. The key here is to show ourselves and the world that something is more important than business, profit, and power, even if we look foolish. Housework, childcare, emergency services… these aren’t the problem. The problem is when we let the profit motive control our schedule on the one day a week when it should have no say at all. If it’s work on Sunday or lose your job or business and die, that’s different. If it’s work on Sunday that directly and immediately provides rest to others, okay. But how many of us could make a stand? Or, if we can’t, do we at least choose another day to make Sabbath rest a real priority each week?
In our online world, I’ll offer another concrete suggestion: prioritize the real over the virtual. Shut off social media. Only watch truly beautiful things. Play games with people who are real to you. Spend time in nature. Get in direct touch with things God made so you can better experience God in your whole life. This is not life-work-balance advice, it’s a commandment. Drive out the money-changers robbing you of sacred rest so you can learn to be consumed by the same zeal for God’s house that drove Jesus to die for you. The same zeal that brough him back from the dead.