
This gesture of Jesus and his prophetic message are fully understood in the light of his Paschal Mystery. We have here, according to the evangelist John, the first proclamation of the death and Resurrection of Christ: His body, destroyed on the cross by the violence of sin, will become in the Resurrection the universal meeting place between God and mankind. And the Risen Christ is himself the universal meeting place—for everyone!—between God and mankind.
For this reason, his humanity is the true temple where God is revealed, speaks, is encountered; and the true worshipers, the true worshipers of God are not only the guardians of the material temple, the keepers of power and of religious knowledge, [but] they are those who worship God "in spirit and truth" )John 4:23).
In this time of Lent we are preparing for the celebration of Easter, when we will renew the promises of our Baptism. Let us walk in the world as Jesus did, and let us make our whole existence a sign of our love for our brothers, especially the weakest and poorest; let us build for God a temple of our lives. And so we make it "encounterable" for those who we find along our journey. If we are witnesses of the Living Christ, so many people will encounter Jesus in us, in our witness.
But, we ask—and each one of us can ask ourselves—does the Lord feel at home in my life? Do we allow him to "cleanse" our hearts and drive out the idols, those attitudes of cupidity, jealousy, worldliness, envy, hatred, those habits of gossiping and tearing down others? Do I allow him to cleanse all the behaviors that are against God, against our neighbor, and against ourselves?...
Jesus never strikes. Jesus cleanses with tenderness, mercy, love. Mercy is his way of cleansing. Let us, each of us, let us allow the Lord to enter with his mercy—not with the whip, no, with his mercy—to cleanse our hearts. With us, Jesus' whip is his mercy. Let us open to him the gates so that he will make us a little purer.
-Pope Francis

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