“MY HOUSE SHALL BE A HOUSE OF PRAYER” (Luke 19:46)

⏰Friday of the Thirty-Third Week of Ordinary Time 1 (24 November 2017 – Memorial of St. Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions)

????1 Mac 4:36-37, 52-59; 1 Chron 29:10, 11abc, 11d-12a, 12bc (R.v.13b); Luke 19:45-48

Is that your understanding of the house of God? Or are you among those who have converted the house of God into a phone charging point?

????????Or turned the house of God into a house for exchanging pleasantries, thus engineering noise instead of prayer?

????????Is the house of God now a place to buy and sell ‘miracles’ – where people now buy miraculous oil, miraculous salt, miraculous water, miraculous clothes in the name of bullet proof, even miraculous faith?

????????Has the house of God been turned into a designer-wears showcase room?

If Jesus should come into the place you go for worship, would he recognize it as a house of worship or market place? If you are among those changing the name of God’s house into another thing, BEWARE OF JESUS’ CAIN! If he flogs you, you may not finish the story in a lifetime.

Don’t forget that our bodies are also houses of God (see 1 Cor 6:19)? Have you also been abusing your body and turning it into a business venture?

St. Andrew Dung-Lac and his companions allowed the Gospel of Christ to reflect in their life and take root in Vietnam even at the expense of their lives. They were killed in the process but they gained eternal life. We too are required to let our lives reflect Christ in our world of today.

“O that today you would listen to his voice, harden not your heart” (Ps 95:7,8). Why not begin now by re-dedicating yourself and reforming your orientation towards the house of God?

May God give us the shed off whatever abuses his house so that he would always find in and with us, a perfect dwelling place. Amen.

Have a beautiful experience of the Lord today. Peace be with you.