Saint Matthew - Chapter 21
[Monday]
 |
| Christ casts the merchants out of the Temple. J-J Tissot |
And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the chairs of them that sold doves:
[13] et dicit eis : Scriptum est : Domus mea domus orationis vocabitur : vos autem fecistis illam speluncam latronum.
And he saith to them: It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves.
And Jesus entered into the Temple of God, and cast out all that sold. Jesus, entering into Jerusalem, did not come to the citadel of Sion as a second David, but to the Temple, that He might show that He was the Son of God the Father, Who was worshipped in the Temple; that He might refer to Him the honour here ascribed by the people to Himself, for He had accepted it for no other end than that He might lead men to God. Wherefore it is not doubtful that Christ gave thanks in the Temple to God the Father, because He had manifested Him to the whole city as Messiah, yea, had glorified Him by the applause of all the people. Again, the first care of Jesus, as Pontiff and Messiah, was of the Temple. Whence, entering into the city, He came to that the first, that He might teach us to do the same. For this reason He set out His journey through Bethany (where He raised Lazarus) and Bethphage, which were over against the Temple, that through them He might proceed straightway to the Temple. For as I have said (verse 1), Christ—passing over the Mount of Olives from Bethany—proceeded directly from thence, through the Valley of Jehosaphat, to the golden gate, which pertained both to the Temple and to the city, near to which was the golden eagle set up by Herod. Wherefore through this gate there was immediate access to the Temple. See Adrichomius, in his account of Jerusalem, where he graphically describes this journey of Christ, and adds that it was said by some that this golden gate was wont to be shut, but that at the coming of Christ it was opened as by a miracle.
Note, that by the Temple here is understood not the Holy Place, nor the Holy of Holies (for into the latter it was lawful only for the high priest, into the former only for the priests, to enter), but the court of the Temple; for into this the laity were accustomed to enter in order to pray and behold the sacrifices, which were offered in the court of the Priests, before the Holy Place. For this court was, as it were, the people’s Temple. For Christ was not a Levitical priest, forasmuch as He was not sprung from Levi and Aaron. Wherefore He could not enter the Holy Place, nor the court of the Priests, but only the court of the people. Wherefore what Faustus the Manichee invented concerning the genealogy of Christ—as though He were sprung from the tribe of Levi—and His Levitical priesthood (apud S. Augustinum, lib. 23, contra eundem Faustum); also what Theodosius, a prince of the Jews in the time of the Emperor Justinian, said (which Suidas recites under the words, Jesus Christus) too rashly believed by Suidas and others; all learned Lien laugh at as dreams and most fabulous errors. Verily Vilalpando (tom. 2, lib. 3, cap. 9) thinks that this court was the court of the Gentiles. For who can believe that these merchants penetrated the inner courts when they could conveniently sell their goods in the outer courts? Especially because Christ in the same day and place had to do with Gentiles, as is plain from John 12:20. But the Gentiles were not able to enter the court of the Jews, but that of the Gentiles, which was before the court of the Jews. This court then was Solomon’s porch—probably the eastern part of Solomon’s porch, in the court of the Gentiles—in which were sold doves, sheep, and lambs for sacrificing in the Temple, whom Christ drove out of it. For the court of the Gentiles was, as it were, the temple of the Gentiles, in which, therefore, it was not seemly to buy and sell.
And He cast out all that sold and bought in the Temple. Not on Palm Sunday itself, but on the next day; for Mark (11:11), who exactly and precisely relates these actions of Christ, performed each day from Palm Sunday until the Friday on which He suffered and was crucified, says, on the day following the Palm Sunday on which this solemn entry of Christ into the city took place—that is, on the Monday—were these things done by Christ in the Temple.
Christ, therefore, on Palm Sunday entered into the city and the Temple in solemn pomp, and prayed in it, and gave thanks to Cod; afterwards, about eventide He went out of the city to Bethany, with the twelve Apostles; and on the next day (Monday) He returned to the city and Temple, and drave out of it the sellers and buyers, as Mark relates (11:11, 12, 15). Wherefore there is here in Matthew a hyperbaton, or inverted historical order. For He wished to join with Christ’s entrance into the Temple His ejection of the buyers from the Temple, for the sake of brevity, lest he should be compelled to relate over again the entrance of Christ into the Temple on the following day. Moreover, Christ drove them from the Temple (that is, from the court of the Temple) for two reasons.
- The first is, because it was not seemly that those things should be sold in the Temple, but in the market-place; for the Temple is the house of prayer, not of merchandise, as Christ says.
- The second was the avarice and usury of the priests. For they were wont—by their own people, or servants, or factors—to sell at a dear rate sheep, kids, doves, to those who wished to offer them in the Temple; especially to those who came from a distance, and poor people, from whom (on account of delay in payment) they extorted gain by usury. Whence they are called robbers by Christ. Thus S. Chrysostom and others. Lastly,
- the first time, at the beginning of His preaching (John 2:14),
- the second, towards the end of it, four days before His death, as is plain from this place. So S. Chrysostom, Augustine, Euthymius, Theophylact, Jansen, Maldonatus, Toletus, and others.
With more probability Jansen and others are of opinion from Hesychius and Pollux that these collybistæ did not lend money but only exchanged it, so that for gold they gave silver, less for greater, for foreign money, domestic, and that with interest and profit; the collybistæ therefore were the money-brokers, so called from κόλλυβος, i.e., small change, which people gave for handling money.
Tropologically, money changers are simoniacal persons, indeed all sinners who profane their soul, which is the temple of God, by lusts and sins, according to the words, “Know ye not that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost” (1 Cor. 6:19), and, “if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy” (1 Cor. 3:17). So S. Jerome, Origen and Auctor Imperfecti.
And the seats in which the men and women who sold doves were wont to sit. For doves were often sold by women, who being weak, and unable to stand long, procure seats for themselves, according to the saying of Martial, “she sits in the women’s seats all day long.” It is wonderful that no one withstood one poor man, as Christ was, overturning all the gains of the priests in the temple. Whence S. Jerome thinks that this was Christ’s greatest Miracle, that He alone could “by the stripes of one scourge cast out so great a multitude, and overturn the tables, and break the seats, and do other things which a vast army could not have done. For something fiery and starlike shot from his eyes, and the majesty of the Godhead shone in His face.” Thus far S. Jerome. Christ therefore here showed a great zeal for religion and the temple, and fulfilled the words of the Psalm (69:9). “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me,” as John says (2:17).
Mystically. They sell doves who sell the grace of the Holy Ghost, as orders, priesthood, and benefices. For a dove is the symbol of the Holy Ghost. Thus Origen: “And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves. (Isaiah 56:7.) Arab. a cave for robbers. “For a robber,” says S. Jerome, “and he who converts the temple into the appearance of a robber’s den is he who makes gain out of religion; and his worship is not so much the worship of God as an occasion of business,” because forsooth, such priests, wholly bent on lucre, lurking in a place of honest appearance, the temple, as in a den, by selling at a dear rate, by usury and by other fraudulent arts and methods were wont to despoil foreigners and poor people, yea plunder them, as robbers do. “For a robber,” says S. Isidore (lib. x. ctymol. litera L.), “is an infester of the ways,” in Latin latro from latendo. But latro is better derived as if from latero, he who lies in wait at the side of the way.” And Varro (lib. 6 de lingua Latina) says, “latrones (robbers) are so called from latere, because they have a sword at their side.” And Sextus Pompeius (de Verb. signif. litera L.) says, “the ancients called latrones those who fought for hire, ἀπὸ τῆς λατρείας, i.e., hire, but now highwaymen are called latrones because they make their attack à latere, or because they lurk in secret (latenter).”
There is an allusion to Jeremiah 7:11, where God says, “Is this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord.” For these Semi-atheists thought that they hid themselves and their wickedness so that they should not be seen by God, as robbers hide themselves and lurk in caves.
Observe: the Temple is called the House of God, not as though God corporeally dwelt in it as in a house (for this S. Paul denies, Acts 17:24), but because the temple is the place appointed for worshipping and praying to God; in which God hears the supplications of those who pray. But the Temple of Christians is called especially the House of God because Christ the Lord corporeally dwells in it in the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, says S. Thomas.
Tropologically: the Temple is a house not for talk, nor speculation, nor drinking, nor revelling, but for prayer. Let therefore those who profane it by gossiping, by gaping about them, by acting lasciviously, by drinking, see how they will be scourged by Christ. For as Bede says (in cap. 2, Joannis), “Those things might seem to be lawfully sold in the Temple which were bought with the intention of offering them in the same Temple to the Lord; but the Lord Himself being unwilling that any earthly business, not even that which was considered honest, should be transacted in His house, drove away the unjust traffickers, and cast them all out together with the things which they sold. What then, my brethren, what do we think the Lord would do if He found people quarrelling, or listening to fables, or giving way to laughter, or entangled in any other wickedness, when He saw those who were buying in His Temple victims which were to be offered to Himself, and made haste to cast them out?” Especially when these buyers and sellers did not lodge in the Temple itself, strictly speaking, but only in a court of the Temple, indeed in a court common to all nations; and yet they were cast out by Christ from thence: what then will He do to Christians who perpetrate these and worse indignities in His Temple before the Holy Sacrament?
Learn from hence how great reverence is due to the Temple, such indeed as is due to God’s House, for Christ calls it My house. Wherefore as a master inquires into and punishes an injury done to his house, as though it were done to himself, so also does Christ look upon an indignity done to His Temple as done to Himself, and as such punishes and avenges it. Wherefore appositely does S. Augustine give the monition in his rule, “Let no one do anything in the Oratory, except that for which it was made, from whence also it hath its name.” See what has been said on Isaiah 56:7, and Levit. 9 at the end of the chapter.
From the Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ by J-J Tissot (1897)
Between Solomon's porch and the outer wall of the Temple on the eastern side, there was a certain space set apart for the animals to be offered up in sacrifice. It was from this space, after the first selection had been made, that they were taken to the priests whose duty it was to examine them carefully according to rigidly prescribed rules when they were led to the sheep pool to be purified. In the space above referred to, which was a kind of long narrow passage, there were beneath the portico a number of little vaulted rooms resembling the shops in a bazaar, where congregated the buyers, money changers and merchants. The premises, however, soon became too small and the traders in animals gradually encroached on the other portions of the Temple.
To begin with, the money changers, going up a few steps, took their stand on the right and left of Solomon's Porch, others imitated their example and soon the entire colonnade was invaded, especially at the time of the great festivals. Nor did the abuse end there; even the Court of the Gentiles was in its turn invaded and defiled by the animals bought and sold in it. Now this court was paved with large polished stones with a slope managed so as to receive rainwater and conduct t to the cisterns. The water in the cisterns of the Temple must, therefore, have been contaminated by impurities, whilst the silence of the sacred precincts was broken by all the confused noises of the market. Preaching, prayer and quiet meditation were all alike impossible; the state of things was scandalous; no one could now retire to the cool shade of the Temple in the morning, for it was then the traffic was at its height. Everyone realized the abuses resulting from the deplorable invasion; but no one had the courage to take the initiative in trying to put a stop to it. Jesus alone, with the authority which radiated forth from his personality, could have hoped to bring such an attempt to a successful issue. He took off a kind of girdle, made of rope, which He wore round his robes, twisted it into a sort of scourge and used it as a whip to drive out them that sold. Behind him in procession followed his disciples who, amidst great confusion, gradually cleared out the purchasers, until the portico was restored to its original tranquillity.
There can be no doubt that everybody except the merchants themselves, who were thus unceremoniously hustled out with their goods and chattels, was very glad of the this successful measure of repression; the people could not fail to appreciate the fact that the healthiness of the Temple had gained greatly in every way; whilst the cleansing of the portico is and their restoration to tranquillity were of paramount importance to them as the spots sacred to religious worship. Moreover, the purification of the waters of the cisterns; the restoration of the place set apart for the teaching of the prophets; the return of sanctity to the holy spot; in a word, everything combined to make the intervention of Jesus peculiarly opportune. The High Priests alone, the exalted a officials of the Jewish nation, on whom had devolved the right of organizing the police of the temple, were hurt at the initiative being thus taken out of their hands, feeling that it was of the nature of a reproach to them.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam
Ad Jesum per Mariam
No comments:
Post a Comment