Lectio Divina – Third Sunday of Lent

Catena Aurea, Lent 3B, Jn 2:13-25

Origen (182-253/4): Should it appear something out of the order of things, that the Son of God should make a scourge of small cords, to drive them out of the temple? We have one answer in which some take refuge, viz. the divine power of Jesus, Who, when He pleased, could extinguish the wrath of His enemies however innumerable, and quiet the tumult of their minds: The Lord brings the counsel of the heathen to nought. This act indeed exhibits no less power than His more positive miracles; on the contrary, more than the miracle by which water was converted into wine: in that there the subject-matter was inanimate, here, the minds of so many thousands of men are overcome.

The Venerable Bede (672/3-735): They then are the sellers of doves, who, after receiving the free grace of the Holy Spirit, do not dispense it freely, as they are commanded, but at a price: who confer the laying on of hands, by which the Holy Spirit is received, if not for money, at least for the sake of getting favour with the people, who bestow Holy Orders not according to merit, but favour.

Origen (182-253/4): Both those, i.e. both the Body of Jesus and the temple, seem to me to be a type of the Church, which with living stones is built up into a spiritual house, into an holy priesthood; according to St. Paul, You are the body of Christ, and individually members of it. And though the structure of stones seem to be broken up, and all the bones of Christ scattered by adversities and tribulations, yet shall the temple be restored, and raised up again in three days.