Today's Thoughts...

Today’s Thoughts: The Jesus we find in the Gospel today (Luke 19: 45-48) was an observant Jew. He valued his community of faith. Sometimes it is the Jesus who ate with sinners and crossed the boundaries of his faith that we are drawn to, but we also need to remember the Jesus was profoundly respectful and observant of his faith.
 
Jesus was also zealous as we see today, his anger at the commercialism of the temple area had its roots in a deep respect for the purpose and place of the temple in the life of the people. It was to be a place of prayer. It was to be a place to go to get away for the everyday busyness and business of life.
 
What we learn from today’s Gospel is that no matter what approach to life that Jesus took it was not going to be good enough or right for the religious leadership. If he was eating with sinner or healing on the Sabbath or talking to women, he was wrong. If he was driving out merchants for the temple area, he was wrong. The religious leadership did not seem to like the zealousness of Jesus for life and his faith.
 
Our challenge today is to learn from Jesus - when, why and how to be zealous. When, why and how, to bring energy, enthusiasm and spirit to our life. We need to be observant Christian, we need to value and respect the places and structure of our faith community. We also need to be about life and finding ways to include everyone in the journey no matter what the cost!
 
Have a great Friday everyone!