In the readings for the 3rd Sunday of Lent, Moses receives the 10 Commandments, the beautiful gift from Our Lord that would define the children of Israel regarding their relationship with Him and with one another. 

 

The commandments are not devices to control humanity but rather are directives of love from the Lord in order that we may truly understand how to live as His children but also so that we may authentically live as human beings made in His image and likeness.

 

Because human hearts have been clouded by sin, in particular the original sin, we then see how sin muddies our relationship with God as well as our understanding and living out of those same commandments. 

 

This is demonstrated in the Gospel where sin has led to abuses in the temple. “With a whip made out of cords, the Lord cleansed the temple ... . ‘Take these out of here, and stop making My Father’s house a marketplace.’ His disciples recalled the words of Scripture, ‘Zeal for Your house will consume Me’ ” (Jn 2:15-17).

 

When we do not follow the commandments, we become like those who had abused the sacred character of the temple. We allow our hearts to become marketplaces where we barter and trade God’s love for lesser things, and often things that are in opposition to God’s love for us. 

 

In our modern world, we can be tempted to see the 10 Commandments as “10 options,” picking and choosing what we want as opposed to “all of the above.”

 

Lent is the acceptable time to change all of that. With the same zeal shown for the temple, the Lord desires to enter the temple of our hearts, not with a whip of cords, but with His cleansing instruments of love, mercy and grace in the sacrament of penance. 

 

Let us stop allowing our hearts to be marketplaces of compromises and rationalizations and excuses, and allow Our Lord to purify them more fully with His grace into the living temples of His glory that they were meant to be. 

 

May Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart assist us in this holy endeavor.