3rd Sunday of Lent: Holy Rage

Can anger be holy? Can rage be spiritual?

In today’s gospel Jesus erupts in rage when he sees people vending oxen, sheep, and doves and money-changers doing business within the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus’ showing of unrestrained anger must have shocked many of us. We can just imagine how much more it shocked many of the pilgrims gathered in the temple of Jerusalem that day.

We are used to the meek, gentle and suffering Jesus depicted in religious articles and art – stampitas, pictures, statues and painting. This corresponds with our view of Jesus as meek, mild and humble. No wonder, two of the most popular devotions to Jesus are Poóng Itím na Nazareno and Santo Niño. Both image depict a suffering, quiet and innocent Jesus.

How in the world can we reconcile Jesus’ anger with the quiet and humble Jesus especially as we see in Holy Week? There he will say barely a word, despite all the violence and suffering inflicted on him. Jesus’ passion and death, however, may have been the consequence of his cleansing of the temple. Jesus’ death may have been the price he had to pay in resisting evil and speaking about tearing down and building a new temple.

“Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”
… But he was speaking about the temple of his body (John 2: 19).

The cleansing of the temple occurs in all four gospels. The narrative occurs near the end of the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke and near the start in the Gospel of John today. In Mark’s gospel, Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple happened on Monday of Passion Week (Holy Week), just three days before the Passover and four days before his crucifixion. Matthew, Mark, and Luke agree that this the event was the immediate “trigger” for Jesus’ death,” and ultimately, Jesus’ resurrection.

But was Jesus’ intense rage justifiable? Jesus anger stemmed from the rich merchants charging exorbitant prices in selling animals for sacrifice and money changers fraudulently taking advantage of the poor exchanging money to buy animals. On top of these, these corruptions were happening right inside God’s temple. Zeal for his Father’s house and compassion for the poor are what drove Jesus to make a whip out of cords and drove the merchants out of the temple area, spilled the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables (John 2: 15). He shouted in a loud voice,

“Take these out of here,
and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”
His disciples recalled the words of Scripture,
Zeal for your house will consume me” (John 2: 16 – 17).

Jesus’ rage, therefore, was an expression of the wrath of God over human’s abuse and oppression of fellow human beings. Jesus’ rage was divine rage upholding God’s goodness. The cleansing of the temple was an expression of divine rage against evil and its effects – sin.

We have also been called to rage against evil when we were baptised. Our baptismal identity is a diametric stance against evil, never a compromise with evil. That is why during baptism the catechumen or the candidate for baptism, the parents and sponsors (for infant baptism, the parents and sponsors stands for the infant who cannot yet make a commitment) are asked: Do you reject Satan? Do you reject sin, so as to live in the freedom of God’s children? Do you reject the glamor of evil, and refuse to be mastered by sin? The catechumens, parents and Godparents are expected to answer and commit: I do. While baptism is to participate in Jesus’ resurrection, sin is to participate in evil, in the works of Satan.

In this season of Lent, as we renew our baptismal identity and calling, we are called to rage against Satan and all his works. We are called to become more intensely aware of sin as Satan’s handiwork in our personal lives and in the structures of our society.

Satan is real. He is relentless. His handiwork is everywhere. He is at work inside us. He is at work in our world. He is at work in our commission and omission. Satan is inaction. Satan is distraction. Satan is deception. Satan is ignorance and self-indulgence. And Satan is absence. The absence of faith. The absence of responsibility. The absence of empathy. The absence of morality.

In this blessed season of Lent, let us allow Jesus to do a “cleansing of the temple” in our lives and our world. What would Jesus rage against in our lives and world today? What would Jesus cleanse in our lives and world today? Let us participate in the divine rage against sin and evil within us and outside us. Let us raise our voices in anger, in frustration, in pain for all the denigration of human dignity and integrity of God’s creation. Like Jesus, let us resist the perversion of his Father’s will and teachings.

But rage is not enough. Rage against sin should lead us to genuine repentance. And finally, action; action in behalf of justice, peace, truth and goodness. Action through the living witness of our lives as testament to our opposition to evil.

In the First Reading, God gave Moses and the Israelites the ten commandments. These are God’s basic instruction for living a life according to our covenant with God.

As we continue our journey in Lent, let us ask the Holy Spirit to guide us into our participation in the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.

I am passionate about the intersection between new media and technology. I continue to research and apply new media in theology and vice-versa. I am also a fan of Our Mother of Perpetual Help and her continuing relevance in today’s digital world.
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