Know your temple.

Lord Jesus said: “My house will be a house of prayer” (Luke 19:46).

The figure of Jesus is mainly associated with good qualities. Today, however, Jesus got angry. Why? He came to the sanctuary – and saw the fair. The shrines of the Jews were beautiful. They were large spaces surrounded by walls. There was a court of the women, a court of the men, a holy place where the priests and Levites sacrificed, and a place called the holy of holies, where the high priest entered once a year to offer incense to God. Everyone could enter the courtyard of the Gentiles, both foreigners, and Gentiles. The whole sanctuary stood in a high place above the city. Jesus Christ loved this sanctuary. He went there every year to his Father’s house. But in the last year of his life, when he entered this sanctuary, he wept over it because he knew that it would be destroyed and that only a stone would remain. And so it happened. And so it is until today. Only a piece of the wall remained, called the “Wailing Wall”.

Jesus Christ loved the Jerusalem temple so much that he entered it as his Father’s house. Then it is no wonder, when he saw sellers and buyers in the temple, that in anger, he overturned the tables of the money changers and drove the sellers out of the temple. Is not the sanctuary a house of prayer? Jesus Christ had great interest and zeal for his Father’s house. All people at different times wanted to build the most beautiful house-church for the Lord God in the middle of their houses. Christians offered the first Holy Masses in private homes. The table was an altar. In Rome, Christians gathered in the catacombs and underground cemeteries, and at night they celebrated the Eucharistic celebration at the graves of the martyrs. When Christians were allowed to pray in public, wealthy Romans made their fine houses available for people to pray in. This is where the basilicas come from. Then came terrible times, raids of barbarian nations, and it was necessary to protect oneself. They gathered in stone churches with small arches and a tower that was also a shooting range.

The Middle Ages came, and the religious people of those times, whose names we do not know, built such beautiful shrines to God that we admire today. These stunning towers direct our thoughts and hearts to God. There are colorful stained glass windows in the arches, beautiful carvings, and sculptures above the entrance to the church. People began building churches for God when new times came after the Middle Ages. TodModernurches no longer have pointed or Gothic arches; they no longer have so much gold. Modern churches are being built next to modern apartment buildings worldwide. They are simple houses where God lives, and people pray.

We have seen the church many times. But do we know what each thing means?
The tower shows us that we have a Father in heaven.
The bells remind us to go to the temple and pray.
At the entrance to the church, there is a shrine in which there is holy water so that those who enter here can wash and be clean.
Strange things happen in the confessional – the secret of conversion and forgiveness through God.
We listen to God’s word from the pulpit.
At baptism in the baptistery, we became sons and daughters of God.
The most important place in the church is the sanctuary, where the holy guests are kept. Jesus is in our midst and will always be with us.
There are still many things in the church: organs, pews, bells, and the like.
All this is to help us to feel good here and to be able to pray fervently in it.

At Holy Mass, we pray for those who give donations to the church, that the house of God may be beautiful, and that it may be a worthy sign of our faith and the faith of those who built and maintained this church. Tell me, where is your place in the church? How do you pray in church? Are you in the right place? How are you doing here? Do you value and respect the prayer of others? Don’t you talk when others are praying? Do you make time every day to be able to come here and tell God that you love him even for staying here with us in the church day and night?

Let’s wish that our temple is genuinely ours, that we feel good in it, visit it o, often and take care of it.