Destroy this temple
Jesus said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then the Jews said to him, “This temple was built in forty-six years, and in three days you will raise it up?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. When he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
The temple is the meeting place between God and man. A sacred place that has always represented for Israel the certainty of the living presence of God in the midst of his people. Jesus presents himself as the new and true temple. From the incarnation, his human-divine person becomes the place where man and God embrace each other. In the gift of the Holy Spirit, from Easter onwards, he dwells in every baptised person, as in a temple. The scene that unfolds in the temple of Jerusalem, the pride of Israel, does not announce destruction, but the beginning of new times, where God is all in all.
You in us; we in you
Jesus, I adore you in the Eucharist,
the real presence of God-with-me.
Jesus, I bow before the person
of my brother, of my sister,
for they are your dwelling place.
Holy Jesus, I bless you
for you have chosen me as your home.
that I may I honour
your presence in me,
your presence in the other,
to dwell, forever,
in your house.
Amen.
Taken from the book Il Vangelo si fa strada by Roberta Vinerba, Paoline 2019
