960312.01
> From: ShiningA@aol.com
> Date: Tue, 12 Mar 1996 17:03:43 -0500
> Subject: What did Christ teach us by driving out the moneychangers?
>
> Dear Father,
>
> I am puzzled and disturbed by the passage in the Gospels
> where Christ seems to initiate violent force by driving out
> the moneychangers in order to correct a blasphemy and
> injustice - moneychangers cheating pilgrims in the temple.
> I know that I am called to follow the life of Christ, but I
> am a very non-violent person and feel uncomfortable with the
> notion that this example is a call to use violence in rare
> circumstances to correct injustices. What is the correct
> interpretation of this passage of scripture? What did Christ
> seek to teach us? Where may I find complete Church
> teachings on the licit use of force such as the just defense
> doctrine as well as illicit uses of force?
>
> Sincerely,
> Luke Seubert
>
> (P.S. I am the guy who once griped about the lack of
> orthodox rigor from Bishop Malone of the Youngstown Diocese.
> My apologies for improperly using the listserve as a forum.
> Bishop Malone, may God Bless him and I mean that sincerely,
> has retired, and the new Bishop is vigorously traveling and
> teaching the True Faith throughout the Diocese. Praise God
> and thank you JPII.)
Dear Luke,
The following numbers of the Catechism of the Catholic Church
will interest you: # 2309 (just war) # 2263, 2265, 1909, 2266
(collective and personal defense).
A careful reading of the cleansing episode in all four gospels
(Matt. 21: 12-13, Mark 11:15-19, Luke 19:45, John 2:13-22) will
show that Jesus' cleansing of the temple area was far less
violent than it is often imagined to be. One commentator
(Wansbrough) writes: "(T)he disturbance many not have seriously
exceeded that normal to an oriental bazaar." Jesus did not lose
his "cool". He was, in action, teaching his own Messiah ship,
that he was Lord of the temple. He was in perfect control: the
wealthy moneychangers saw their precious coins strewn over the
pavement, but the poor vendors of birds were simply told to carry
their cages away.
However, there is nothing in the Gospels to suggest that God
Incarnate was a flower child or a wimp. He was capable of
rudeness to make a teaching point Luke 2:49, Matt. 23:27, Luke
13:32, Mark 7:27). He knocked the gang who had come out to
arrest him clean off their feet (John 18:5-6). Really, it seems
to me, there would be little challenge and little profit in
following and worshipping Jesus if he were only a kind of 1st
century Jewish Miss Manners.
Sincerely in Christ,
Father Mateo
- Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit -
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