A Place for “Hushed Honor” and Reverence

A Reflection on the Gospel of Luke 19 45-48, 24 November 2023

By Deacon Mark Mueller

(Internet Image from Christ cleansing the temple by Bernardino Mei)

The readings may be found at https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112423.cfm

I spent most of my adult life serving in the Army, leading, and following Soldiers. With large or small groups, it is often hard to keep everyone moving in a common direction and on plan. This is especially the case in combat. The military objective is often clear, but the path to that objective is often up to the interpretation, or misinterpretation, of the individual or team charged with their own part of the plan. The good news is that this allows great capacity for each individual or team to capitalize on developing opportunities. That is the importance of training and education for each to realize and grasp every opportunity in the pursuit of any objective.

Unfortunately, there is also a probability, resulting from miscommunication or misunderstanding, for an opportunity to be horribly missed, leading to mission failure or less than full success. In these situations, tempers and frustration often flare, and it is common to hear someone remark, that “so and so” is a fool, an idiot, or even worse! Amidst one of these situations, hearing someone referred to as an idiot, I once heard a wise Sergeant Major remark,

“Before anyone refers to another Soldier as an idiot, remember that this Soldier, or Soldiers, to whom you condescend, have willingly offered their life in defense of their country, in defense of every man and woman present. For that alone, we MUST only refer to any Soldier in terms of “hushed honor” and reverence.”

This comment is something we all should recall when we begin to speak of any other human being as anything less than the sacred vessel, uniquely created by God, that they are. Yet, the world renders cheers and applause, to others describing our fellow man as being, “less than,” as “vermin,” or worse. We could all benefit from the wisdom of that Sergeant Major and only speak of any other with “hushed honor” and reverence.

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Human life is sacred—all men must recognize that fact, … from its very inception it reveals the creating hand of God.” (St John XXIII as quoted in HV 13)

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In the Gospel today, Jesus is righteously aflame with anger over the buying and selling in God’s Temple. The traders performed a service necessary for divine worship, but an excessive desire for gain corrupted this service, turning the Temple into “a den of thieves.” Worse, the Temple authorities complicit with the trader’s greed, also garnered a portion of the profit from that which was required by the law to reconcile man with God. This especially oppressed the poor who could not afford to pay, thereby blocking grace. In their greed, those that should have sought to safeguard the sanctity of worship within the Temple, and protect the poor, failed. The temple should have been the ultimate place of “hushed honor” and reverence, where heaven and earth meet (Exodus 25:21–22). Instead, the temple had become a marketplace for profit.

There is a tendency to look at this Gospel as a singular event with no application to each of us, personally. Yet there is! Our Lord Jesus is the new temple which is destroyed and then rebuilt in three days (John 2:19). In fact, Jesus describes Himself as “something greater than the temple…” (Matthew 12:6 NABRE) Jesus in His person is the place where God and man, the Creator, and his creature, meet. Our Church, with Jesus on the altar or in the Tabernacle, is a place of “hushed honor” and great reverence; the conduit of grace into the world.

Yet, St Paul also writes,

Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy. (1 Corinthians 3:16–17 NABRE)

We, who receive the Eucharist, are also the temple where heaven and earth meet. Filled with Jesus’ Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, we are filled with the Temple that we become. Believing this, how can we refer to any Catholic with any less reverence, with any less “hushed honor,” as we would Christ? This also applies to every human being. How can we treat anyone whom Jesus desires, for He “wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth,” (1 Timothy 2:4 NABRE)with anything less than that same “hushed honor” and reverence?

Today’s Gospel is a challenge to treat the Temple of the Lord: every Parish Church, our own bodies, every person in whom Jesus is physically present through the Eucharist, and those in whom Jesus desires to indwell, with “hushed honor” and reverence. Today is a challenge to drive away from our own thoughts, words, and deeds, anything that denigrates any human being for our own gain, personally, professionally, or monetarily or tolerate or applaud anyone who does the same. Today, Jesus challenges us to be the conduit of grace, as a Temple of the Lord, that He intends. Let us, therefore, speak of the other, no matter our level of frustration, with only “hushed honor” and reverence; with love. In the Gospel today, Jesus reveals our own deepest meaning, which is linked to the fulfilment of His own Mystery, the Mystery of His death and Resurrection, in which He Himself becomes the new and definitive Temple; the place where God and man, the Creator and His creature meet. A place, whether a building or body, which is sacred.

End Notes

Christ cleansing the temple by Bernardino Mei. Fine Art America. (n.d.). https://fineartamerica.com/featured/5-christ-cleansing-the-temple-bernardino-mei.html.

New American Bible. Revised Edition. Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2011. Print.

Paul VI. Humanae Vitae. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1968. Print.