Homily 484 | 3rd Sunday of Lent | Year B
We believe that God became one of us, we killed him, and then he rose from the dead. That’s amazing! But do we act like it? Maybe we’ve gotten too familiar with the story of our faith. We get up, brush our teeth, go to Mass and receive God, and then go get breakfast. Normal, boring.
In the second reading today, St. Paul reminds us just how astounding the message of the gospel is. We preach Christ, the Messiah, crucified… did you get that? That’s impossible. The Messiah can’t be killed by the Romans. God can’t die. This is crazy. And then rise from the dead? Absolutely ridiculous. Except it’s true!
Have we taken the wonder out of the gospel by trying to make it ordinary? When Jesus showed up at the temple in today’s gospel, he found people treating the temple like it was ordinary. They weren’t doing bad things there, just ordinary things, buying and selling. But Jesus made a whip and drove them out. The worship of God is anything but ordinary. Or have we become too familiar with it?
What we claim to believe as Christians is astounding. If it weren’t true, it would be the most unbelievable story anyone ever made up. Except it’s true. So that makes it the greatest story ever told. Do we believe this? Do we act like it?