GENERAL HOUSE CLEANING

Friday of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time
Lk 19:45-48

Every year, I am the most excited in the family to see our very modest house lit with Christmas decors. Even now that I am no longer a kid, I am always the first to say, “When are we going to put up the Christmas decors?” Just last week, I asked my mommy and elder sister the same question. And as always, mom’s answer was, “We’ll start decorating only after we have a general house cleaning.”

Jesus seems to be doing a general cleaning today. As the liturgical year comes to a close and the Advent season is barely a week away, the Gospel today presents to us the cleansing of the Temple. This Gospel is a fitting reminder for us to have a cleansing of our selves before we celebrate the commemoration of the Lord’s birth and as we wait for His final coming whose exact time we do not know.

My mom believes that it is not the Christmas decors that truly bring in the Christmas spirit to our house. It is the cleaning prior to the decorating that really welcomes the spirit of the season. A house may be well furnished for the yuletide season but unless it undergoes a thorough cleaning, its household simply welcomes with the signs of the season but not the spirit of the season.

Have we already put up our Christmas décors? I hope we had a general house cleaning first. And lest we forget, we are temples of the Holy Spirit. We need cleansing more than our houses do.