Homily For Friday Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time Year B, 22nd November, 2024. The Memorial of St. Cecilia

 

Readings: Rev. 10:8-11 , Ps.119, Luke:19:45-48

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

WE ARE GOD’S TEMPLE IN NEED OF CLEANSING

The temple, as we know, is described as the sacred dwelling place of God. That’s a sacred space where humanity encounters the Divine presence of God. It is a symbolic space where God desires to live together with humanity and rule the world through them. Therefore it is very important to ensure that such Sacred Space (Temple) is kept sacred at all times.

Little wonder, in our Gospel passage today, we heard a very brief story of how Jesus entered the temple in Jerusalem and drove away the traders from the courts of the Temple, saying: “My house will be a house of prayer. But you have turned it into a den of thieves.” So he chased out all the dishonest, selfish and greedy merchants who were making profits by cheating the faithful pilgrims who came to the Temple to worship God.

Here, Jesus was not just concerned with cleansing the temple of Jerusalem but also the temple of the human heart, that is, our souls. He is objecting to the corruption of the sacred. Our body and soul are the temple of the Lord and belong to him alone. It is a sacred space, a house of prayer which must not be given over to the false gods of money, greed and sin of immorality. 

And by clearing the Temple, the Lord has also urged us all to clear our own spiritual Temples, that is our body, mind, heart and soul, in which God dwells. That is why St. John, in our first reading, described in his vision the gift of God’s Words to his disciples and the Church, using figurative language. Here, he described how wonderful the truth of God’s Words is to us, yet it is bitter for us to embrace it fully and let it bear fruit in our lives. This is what we see in the life of St. Cecilia whose memorial we celebrate today.

St. Cecilia came from an extremely rich family and was given in marriage to a young man named Valerian. She wore sackcloth next to her skin, fasted, and invoked the saints, angels, and virgins, beseeching them to guard her virginity. During her wedding ceremony, she was said to have sung in her heart to God, and before the consummation of her marriage, she told Valerian, her husband, that she had taken a vow of virginity and had an angel protecting her. 

Valerian asked to see the angel as proof, and Cecilia told him he would have eyes to see once he travelled to the third milestone on the Via Appia (Appian Way). There he was baptized by Pope Urbanus. Following his baptism, Valerian returned to his wife and found an angel at her side. The angel then crowned Cecilia with a chaplet of rose and lily. 

Cecilia was later arrested and condemned to be suffocated in the baths. Later, an executioner was sent to cut off her head in the baths, struck her three times but was unable to decapitate her, so he left her bleeding, and she lived for three days. Crowds came to her and collected her blood while she preached to them or prayed. On the third day, she died and was buried by Pope Urban and his deacons. Today St. Cecilia is regarded as the patroness of music because she heard heavenly music in her heart when she was married and is represented in art with an organ or organ pipes in her hand.

Dear friends, our souls are the sacred dwelling of God’s Temple. Thus, it must be made sacred at all times by ensuring that we get rid of all corruptions, wickedness, pride, ego, greed, wrath and all other sorts of evils within us. We must resist them and strive to inspire and help one another to keep our Temple sacred. Jesus wishes to cleanse the temple of our soul by removing what has corrupted it in order to purify it for worship and make it a dwelling place for prayer. But are we willing to let him cleanse us?

LET US PRAY: Lord God, we are your temple, yet we have let the selfish desires for the things of this passing world corrupt us so deeply. As we embrace your Words today, may we experience the joy of the purification of our body and soul. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Have a fruitful day.