Cleanse My Heart 

   “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts.  See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way of everlasting.” (Psalm 139: 23 – 24) 

  The gospel reading for today recounted Jesus’ cleansing of the temple.  He chased out the money changers and all those selling sacrificial animals from the temple in righteous anger, offended that they had turned God’s house into a marketplace.

   St. Paul writes, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?”  (1 Cor 6: 19).  If Christ in my life He has made a temple of my body.  A temple that becomes cluttered with earthly concerns and desires.  Like those who had made the temple in Jerusalem a marketplace, my temple is fouled by things that have no place in the house of God.

   It’s necessary that the temple of my body be cleansed to remove what doesn’t belong, replacing them with a temple in which God can reside, a temple for the Holy Spirit to dwell in.  

   This cleansing process can be painful, it’s hard to resist the pleasures the evil one promises.  Jesus used a whip of cords to cleanse the Jerusalem temple.  I sometimes think a powerful assault on the evil that tries to dwell within me is necessary to cleanse my heart as well.

   It’s so easy to become attached to the pitiful pleasures the world promises, forgetting that there is nothing in this world that can compare to the treasures awaiting those who trust in God and follow His ways.

   I ask the Lord to look deeply within the temple of my heart and soul, to discover what evil may be there.  I ask Him to cleanse me, to create a pure heart in me, to keep me on the path that leads to eternal life. 

Lord, cleanse the temple within me.

Root out an evil that may exist.

Make a clean heart within me.

A heart to serve only You. 

Amen