We Will Come Unto Him

There is only one event in the Gospels where our blessed Lord shows true anger.  Certainly, he criticizes the Pharisees quite a few times, but his words, while severe and condemnatory, are not those of an enraged man venting out his wrath.  But then there’s the time he comes into the temple, his Father’s house, the house of prayer and sacrifice, and sees the moneylenders, the shopkeepers, the greedy, all intent not on praying but on making money, accruing wealth for themselves.  Bear in mind, he does not lose his temper when he sees this; the Son of God is in firm control of his emotions.  But he does show his wrath.  This is the righteous wrath of Almighty God, visible this one and only time in our Lord’s life, and a valuable lesson for those who might pause in their tracks to watch.  There is a reason for this display of anger from one whose reputation is otherwise one of meekness, humility and loving-kindness towards even the most perverse of sinners.  Even Judas, we must remember, did not experience our Lord’s anger, merely a rebuke and a warning.  So what is it about what these men were doing that brings about this fury?

Our Lord is angry because his Father’s house has been desecrated.  While he meekly subjected himself to the abuse of the Roman soldiers and the betrayal of his chosen people, it was an entirely different matter when the house of his heavenly Father, the holy Temple of Jerusalem, was treated in such a sacrilegious matter.  We can imagine what God’s anger must be at the desecrations that go on today in so many conciliar churches.  But rather than dwell on that thought today, this day of Pentecost, let us look rather to ourselves.

For are we not, after all, the Temples of the Holy Ghost?  Did our loving Saviour not send to each of those in the state of grace the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost?  “If a man love me,” says our Lord, “he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”  If a man love me… Do we love God?  How are we to know whether we love God or not.   It’s actually quite simple— “if a man love me, he will keep my words.”  Keeping the word of God, particularly God’s law, the commandments, is our way of showing God we love him, it’s the test and the proof of our love.  Unless we keep those commandments, our protestations of loving God are merely words, empty words devoid of sincerity.  But if we do keep the commandments, if we do live according to our blessed Lord’s teachings, then God will make his abode with us.  “We will make our abode.”  Note he says “we” and not “I.”  Who is this “we” unless the Blessed Trinity himself, the Father and the Son, and the love of each for the other, the love that is the Holy Ghost.

If we think of nothing else this Pentecost, we will contemplate with awe that this infinite Creator of all makes his abode with us for as long as we keep his words.  God lives within each of us.  We are his Temple, a temple so much more important than the building of bricks and stones that the moneylenders desecrated in Jerusalem.  For we are beings with an immortal soul, a soul made to live forever united with God in heaven.  Who among us shall dare to desecrate that soul with mortal sin?  And if we do, and refuse to repent that infinite offense against Almighty God, what wrath are we to expect from him on the Day of Judgment?  If we use our Temple of God in order to satisfy our own gratifications, in order to do our own will and not God’s, then, if we do not repent, we are surely doomed.  The refusal to repent for our sins is the ultimate sin, a blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, This is why blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is a sin that cannot be forgiven.  It’s a sin that presupposes the refusal to repent.  It is the greatest crime of all, the deliberate rejection of God’s love.  If we do not want to see the righteous anger of Almighty God when we stand before him in judgment, then we must turn our soul to him now and sweep it clean.  If we don’t cleanse them, be sure that our Lord will take up that scourge again and drive us out of heaven, just as we have driven out the Holy Ghost from his abode in the temple of our soul.

For those in the state of grace, the Holy Ghost is constantly present.  He is the Paraclete, the Comforter.  He comforts us with the Peace of God.  “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you,” promises our Lord.  “My peace,” not the flimsy fleeting peace that a few moments of pleasure provide, “not as the world giveth, give I unto you.”

We live in survival mode at present.  We don’t know what evil lurks around the corner of tomorrow, nor what terrible events are being set up to darken the remainder of our days.  But with the presence of this peace of God in our souls we can rise above these worries.  We can even rejoice as our Lord tells us.  “If ye loved me, ye would rejoice.”  Because if we love God, then the Holy Ghost will abide within our hearts, so “let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”  And may the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep our hearts and minds all the days of our life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.