Third Sunday of Lent, Year B
Exodus 20:1–17
Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 11
1 Corinthians 1:22–25
John 2:13–25
At the Masses of the third, fourth and fifth Sundays of Lent celebrated in the presence of the Elect, Year A readings are used in conjunction with the three scrutinies for the sake of these members of the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (O.C.I.A., formerly called R.C.I.A. - the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults), the catechumens who are destined to be received into the Church at the Easter Vigil. Since we are in Year B, this means that there may be different readings at different Masses in your parish.
The themes of the scrutinies and the Year A readings match the gospels of the respective Sundays: thirst on the third Sunday of Lent (the woman at the well), light and blindness on the fourth Sunday of Lent (the man born blind), and life on the fifth Sunday of Lent (the raising of Lazarus). These themes may also be echoed in the readings of the other years, though not always quite as explicitly.
The third Sunday of Lent in Year B presents us with the Ten Commandments as they are articulated in Exodus and the gospel concerning the cleansing of the temple in John. These texts are associated with attention to what it means to fulfill the will of God for his people.
The disciples of Jesus who witness the “sign” Jesus performs recall the scripture, “Zeal for your house will consume me” (Psalm 69:10). They see this action as a fulfillment of Jesus’ own desire to purify the worship given to his father. It is the fulfillment of the longing, the desires of the human heart. Likewise, the promise of the new temple is a reference to the resurrection of the body, first the very body of Jesus himself, and then that of his Church. The temple itself points to a dwelling place for God that is a people, not merely a physical structure. This theme may be found throughout the Johannine writings.
The psalm response also suggests the reality of God’s word as a promise that life will endure beyond the grave. “Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.” Like the “living water” promised to the woman of Samaria, the readings of Year B draw our attention to an invitation to a greater expectation than we have ever imagined. We can leave behind all earthly, temporary satisfactions and stretch our minds and heart toward something greater.
St. Anselm’s philosophy tells us that God is “that than which nothing greater can be conceived.” God is beyond the grasp of our minds. We cannot understand him for who he is in our intellect. Whatever we many conceive of, no matter how great it may be, God is greater still.
Jesus’ cleansing of the temple and the charge not to make it a marketplace, along with his prophecy of the resurrection, tell us that God wants to direct our sights on a reality that this world cannot contain. Fulfillment of the law by earthly commerce does not reach what God has in store. Signs and worldly wisdom cannot grasp what faith can see. As St. Paul proclaims, Jesus Christ crucified is the “the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”
This third Sunday of Lent, after having recalled weakness and temptation and the promise of transformation, we are now invited to look deeply into our hearts for the longings and desires, the thirst for something lasting, and to put our trust in God’s zeal to purify us and to raise us up. This will dispose us toward a new way of seeing everything.
