False accusations

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken. (John 2:13-22)

At the Sanhedrin trial of Jesus, our Lord is accused of having said he would destroy the temple and then rebuild it in three days. Actually, as we read in today's gospel, Jesus said the opposite: “Destroy this temple.” In other words, it would they would end up destroying the temple, as Jesus's adversaries. Afterward, Jesus would rebuild it in three days. Evidently, Jesus was referring to his body which they would have destroyed and which would be restored by His resurrection on the third day after His death. If we want to apply Jesus's teaching to our lives, let us then commit ourselves to never profaning our bodies: our bodies are the temple of ours souls whose salvation was obtained at the cost of Jesus's own bloodshed.