SCRIPTURE REFLECTION 33rd Sunday

The gospel for this weekend is Jesus talking about the destruction of the Temple and the persecution that will accompany its demise. In Chapter 19 Jesus had already predicted the fall of Jerusalem. Both the destruction of the Temple and the fall of Jerusalem will be the result of the infidelity of the people to observe Covenant, practice the Law and respect the teachings of the Prophets.

Today we are not faced with such dire circumstances. For the Jews the Temple was the place where Yahweh dwelt – the building was magnificent beyond imagining. Jerusalem was the centre of their universe. The nations of the world were expected to come to it. All of this being destroyed was unimaginable.

Now it is unlikely that a building such as St Peter’s Basilica, comparable to the magnificent Temple of Jerusalem, will be destroyed (although ISIS has its eyes on it as a target) with gross persecution of Christians following its fall. We face more subtle ‘destructions’ and silent, elusive and it times devious persecutions.

Section 116 of the Australian Constitution, “The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.” Australia was founded as a secular nation. This is where we can be come unstuck because we would like to believe that Australia is a Christian country based on Christian principles and values. The Constitution lays out our secularism.

Thus we must be definite in our Christian values and firm in our Catholic practice. We cannot afford to compromise these in the hope of being more accepted, less uncomfortable in our witness nor uncertain in our explanation of what we believe. Otherwise we say “yes’ to the destruction of our Christian values and restricted in our practice of our Catholic faith.