Daily Bible Devotional (Nov 22, 2024)

What goes in and out of the Temple of your body...

There are two allusions to the prophet Ezekiel in today’s readings. The first is in the eating of the scroll in Revelation 10:9. In Ezekiel 3:1-15, the prophet is also told to eat a scroll with the written word of God on it. He does this so that he can speak God’s words to Israel. These words are sweet, as the Psalm alludes, but they will be heard as sour to the people.

Israel was God’s Chosen People at the time of this prophecy. They act as a type of the Church, especially an institutional Church that has gotten too comfortable in the world. The eating of the scroll is then a type for the Eucharist, which is not just God’s written word, but God’s Incarnate Word. The prophet must maintain a steady “diet” of the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, if he is going to be God’s mouthpiece to a hostile world. 

The Psalm will contrast the preciousness of God’s word with the cheapness of gold and silver. This implies that there has been an exchange between these two items. God’s people, in the Old and the New Testaments, has always been tempted to exchange spiritual goods for earthly goods. The Psalmist is trying to show us how much more important God’s word is, but we will see the calcification of this exchange in the Gospel. 

Jesus, experiencing the exchange of God’s word for gold and silver, seeks to cleanse the Temple here in Luke 19:45-48. This is also an allusion to Ezekiel’s prophecy of God’s glory leaving the Temple in Ezekiel 10. This was because of the desecration that was taking place in the Temple. The prophecy is that when God’s glory returned, there would be a necessary cleansing that took place, a cleansing which we see when God’s glory, his Son Jesus, returns here.

This too has Eucharistic undertones as the grace of reception of the Sacrament will purify one from venial sins and attachment to sin. This is not the same as being cleansed of mortal sin, as one must receive the Sacrament of reconciliation for this, but that God’s Incarnate presence will not allow for sin to exist within our soul.