Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out
those who were selling things, saying to them,
“It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer,
but you have made it a den of thieves.”
And every day he was teaching in the temple area.
—Luke 19:45–47

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.
—1 Corinthians 6:19–20

Jesus’s actions in today’s Gospel are a wake-up call for us to refocus our priorities. The merchants in the temple had lost sight of its sacredness, concerned more with their own opportunities for wealth and prosperity than with the opportunity to commune with their Creator. We, too, are prone to forget the sacredness of our own bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit. Are we cluttering our souls with distractions that don’t belong in His sacred place? Are we giving our attention to idols, interested more in material goods than in the love of our Savior?

When we approach the temple of God that exists within our own hearts, may we enter all the way inside to worship instead of lingering at the outskirts, distracted by vanities. Let us empty ourselves and step forward to behold our God; the veil has been lifted, and He invites us further up and further in. As we prepare for the Feast of Christ the King, may Christ reign fully in our hearts.

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Image: A.N. Miranov, Expulsion of the merchants from the temple / CC BY-SA 4.0