3rd Sunday of Lent: Attacking the Snake in the Garden

Today's Gospel portrays Jesus angry and overturning the tables outside of the Temple. Once we remember that the Temple was meant to evoke the Garden of Eden, the place that God dwelt in friendship with the man and woman before the Fall, we see that Jesus is acting as the "New Adam" -- casting out anything that would come between God and man. St. Paul reminds us that we, too, are the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Any evil that would compromise us and our Communion with God is worthy of ruthless anger -- attacking it until the garden of our heart is once again a place where we can allow God to dwell with us in peace and freedom.