Word to the Wise
Friday, November 23, 2007 - Thirty-third Friday in Ordinary Time
[1 Maccabees 4:36-37; 52-59 and Luke 19:45-48]Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out those who 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."
Sacred space can be a sensitive subject. Ask any pastor who attempts a renovation. Both scriptures today deal with the temple. In each case the "cleansing" is meant to make the temple a fit place for worship. Of course, Jesus is saying more than just that he wants the temple to be used as a house of prayer and not a market - no matter how necessary the items sold were to the operation of the place. He is also saying that there will be a new temple not made of stones. Judas Maccabaeus removes the idols and other things installed by Antiochus Epiphanes and restores and rededicates the temple in an event that is still today commemorated by the celebration of Chanukah in the Jewish community. Both the Vatican and the bishops' conferences have written weighty documents about worship space, how it is to be used and furnished, and how we are supposed to behave. Whatever may be said in those important documents, the average Catholic my age, who grew up in the pre-Vatican II church, knows that church behavior is not the same. For some, all reverence and a notion of sacred space have disappeared. For those who came along after the council, the customs and behaviors of the past may be fascinating but also baffling. The more traditional way has made a kind of comeback in the existence of "adoration chapels." At the same time, most Sunday sacred space is still being constructed to be flexible and open to a more interactive gathering instead of a completely silent, genuflection oriented, individual piety based space. To put it mildly, we are much in a period of flux when it comes to creating sacred space. What makes a place sacred is the prayer of the people. No building can be sacred of its own accord. It must be designated as such by the Church and used that way. An empty sacred space cannot be a church. It can only be a building, even if it is designated a church, if no community comes to worship. Yet, such spaces are subject to the desires of secular concerns, such as the placing of national flags. (Even the Vatican flag is the flag of a nation and not of the church.) Both Judas and Jesus remind us what the temple is about and this, in turn, challenges us to pay attention to sacred space and what we do there. AMEN
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