Reflection/Homily: Third (3rd) Sunday of Lent Year B (March 11 2012)

           There was this story I read up at the MSNBC website few days ago about Taylor Sauer, 18, an intelligent high school graduate who met her untimely death when she ran into a truck while messaging a pal on facebook as she drove. It was discovered later that Taylor posted on facebook every 90 seconds while driving. Since then, the parents Clay and Shauna Sauer still grieving over the Jan. 12 2012 incident have become lobbyist in their home state Idaho (U.S) urging the state legislature to pass a law banning texting or facebooking while driving. The father said “I think every state should have the texting ban law, it might not make changes right now, but for the young generations, it will be an educational tool, just like the seat belt law”.

             From the background of this story, we see a law (like the law banning texting/facebooking while driving) not as anything evil but as a necessary good to prevent a potential danger. This means that law givers do not give or make laws for punishment or to deprive people of comfort but to ensure people’s safety and general well-being.

            In the first reading, we see the Ten Commandments, an important law that binds all Christians

irrespective of their denominations. This law was given by God to Moses at Mt. Sinai for the observance of all Israelites and by extension, all people of God. This Law should not be seen as a punishment or as an imposition but should be obeyed out of love, conviction and confidence in the God who gave the law. Today, however, people are very uncomfortable with this Law or at least some part of it not because it does not lead to common good but on the basis that they are too many in number. Hence, some agitate for the Ten Commandments to be reduced, even, it is on record that in the past some people approached their Bishop requesting for the removal of the 6^th and 9^th commandments.

            However, we need to understand the Decalogue (10 commandments) not just as laws simply to be obeyed but as codes of conduct to guide our everyday actions. They are not meant to punish us or deprive us of our joy but to guide our paths towards righteousness. The psalmist says “I keep your Law in my heart so that I will not sin against you” (Ps. 119:11) and “Your Word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path” (Ps. 119:105). If there had been a law prohibiting facebooking while driving, Taylor might not have been so unfortunate if she was conscious of that law. God gave us the law to prove His love for us and to make us always conscious of the good we ought to do and the evil we ought to avoid. So do not consider the commandments as a punishment or as something unrealizable. They are guidelines for practicing love of God and neighbour and are realizable for those who desire to keep them and who ask for God’s grace. If they are too heavy for you, approach Jesus who invites all those with heavy burden to come to him. He promises to help you.

            In our observance of the commandments, we must try to obey the spirit of the Law and not just the letter of the Law. For instance, the 6^th commandment forbids adultery in letter but forbids all sorts of immorality (masturbation, pornography, homosexuality, lesbianism, etc) in spirit. Many people consider this to be the most difficult commandment because there is a strong natural passion in all men contrary to it. That is why our streets are full of half-clothed people, our entertainment movies turning into pornography, erotic contents on our adverts and cases of sexual violence and abuse keep increasing daily.

            Other sins against the other commandments abuse others but the sins against the 6^th and 9^th commandments abuse our bodies also which are the temples of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor 6:15-20). Unfortunately, some of these sins have been commercialized and even their commercialization has been legalized in most countries. More people are getting involved in prostitution either as prostitutes or as customers. Some are even unaware that they are prostituting when they give in to the sexual advances of some benefactors/benefactresses, or friends or even relatives for material benefits. We desecrate our bodies which are the temples of the Holy Spirit when we indulge in such acts. In the gospel reading, we see what happens to a desecrated temple – Jesus visits it with a whip and turns everything upside down. At such moments, we suffer the consequences of our sins.

            Therefore brethren, we are invited during this period of lent to cleanse up our temples if we have desecrated it with any form of sexual mess through repentance and reconciliation with God, the Church and our neighbour. We must also apologize to those we may have sexually hurt or even deflowered. We must not justify our irrational sexuality with our innate sexual desires. Some think God is foolish by putting the sexual energy in us yet restricting our use of it, but remember the second reading says “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom”. It is better people think we are foolish by the way we avoid sin than to be thought to be wise by the clever way we commit sin. Bearing in mind that most of us in our foolishness have desecrated this Temple in us, let us invite Jesus for cleansing and for those whose temples were desecrated against their wish, may He also heal them of the wounds. Let us then, keep this temple pure by our holiness of life. God loves you.