CLEAN YOUR HOUSE FIRST!

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

When I was yet a little boy, I am the most excited in the family to see our very modest home lit with Christmas decors. Even now, I still am always the first to say, “When are we going to put up the Christmas decors?” 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 Lord’s birthday 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 home. 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. Before you put up your Christmas decors this year, please do not forget to do a general house cleaning first. And lest we forget, we are temples of the Holy Spirit. We need cleansing more than our houses do.