Praise be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

There are moments when, upon entering a new or beautifully constructed church, we are immediately filled with awe and admiration for the art and craftsmanship that surround us. These inspire us to pray more deeply and encounter God in the stillness of the place.

Nowadays, our churches are carefully planned and built to reflect the dignity proper to a house of prayer. In our Sunday Gospel, Jesus—who surely was always in awe of every temple He entered—is portrayed as being filled with pity and outrage for what was happening within the temple. With great zeal for His Father’s house, Jesus was angered because the people had disrespected the temple, a place meant for the worship of God. Their sacrilege and lack of awareness wounded His heart, for, as we hear in our first reading from the Book of Ezekiel, the temple is described as the source from which all graces flow.

At the same time, we must remember that Jesus came down from Heaven to redeem humanity from sin. In another part of the Gospel, Jesus preached that the time would come when we would worship God no longer in temples made by hands but “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:21–23). Therefore, we can say that Jesus’ message of salvation invites us to reflect on the fact that our bodies—our very selves—are also temples where God dwells, just as St. Paul reminds the Corinthians in our second reading.

Thus, Jesus’ outrage in the temple can also be understood as His sorrow over the desecration of the human temple. Turning the temple into a “marketplace” can be seen as a symbol of man destroying his original goodness and falling into sin. Jesus’ heart is even more wounded because the people allowed themselves to become accomplices of evil, turning both the sacred temple and their own souls—created good and pure—into something defiled. Both the structural temple and the human temple were meant to serve as dwellings for God, yet both had been turned away from their original purpose.

The sacrilege committed in the temple reveals the plan of the enemy: to destroy the beauty of our faith and our houses of worship by first corrupting the very idea that we ourselves are God’s chosen temples where His Spirit dwells.

Even today, this remains the reality of the Church’s woundedness—both in her physical structures and in her people. The enemy still seeks to destroy our churches, our faith, and the belief in our innate goodness as God’s creation. This is the ongoing woundedness of the Church.

Yet God never runs out of plans. He continues to send modern prophets and mystics to remind us of His presence. The life, journey, and holiness of Blessed Francisco Palau, our Father Founder, are concrete manifestations that God never gives up on His Church—His people. With great zeal for the Church, Blessed Francisco Palau proclaimed:

“My mission is to announce to the people that you, Church, are infinitely beautiful and lovable, and to preach so that they might love you. Love for God, love for neighbor—this is the object of my mission.”

Fr. Palau’s life reminds us that despite the Church’s wounds, there will always be a reason to love her and to see her beauty. Each of us, though we may contribute to the Church’s sufferings, is also capable of helping to restore her beauty. As members of the Mystical Body of Christ, with Jesus as our Head and we as His Body, we are called to serve our individual functions and contribute to the greater work of healing and restoration.

But how can we avoid repeating the same sacrilege committed by those in the temple of old—against both the structural temple and the human temple?

Firstly, by not allowing sin and evil to take control. Let us submit ourselves to the Church—be obedient to her teachings, her leaders, and her magisterium. Let us participate actively in our faith through the sacraments and the life of ministry.

Secondly, by remaining faithful to our Catholic Christian identity through participation in life-giving and life-affirming advocacies that promote human dignity—both our own and that of our neighbors. By becoming wounded healers to one another, we can transform every wound into a beautiful opportunity to serve and live with purpose.

To be children of Father Francisco Palau means always seeing the beauty of the Church and embracing her despite her wounds. It means possessing the same zeal for the Temple that burned in the heart of Jesus, and the same love for the Church that inspired our Father Founder.

May Blessed Francisco Palau, our father and teacher, inspire us and help us to see, appreciate, restore, serve, and protect the Church in all her dimensions. And like him, may we live for the Church—and, if need be, die for her.

By:
Ge Taylan
Carmelite Missionaries Youth