Bishop Barron's Reflection

Word On Fire Ministry | 3-18-2020 | Bishop Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus declares that he has come to fulfill the Law.

The same Jesus who railed against the hypocritical legalism of the Pharisees also said, "I have come not to abolish the law but to fulfill it." And the same Jesus who threatened to tear down the temple in Jerusalem also promised "raise it up" in three days.

The point is this: Jesus certainly criticized the corruption in the institutional religion of his time, but he by no means called for its wholesale dismantling. He was a loyal, observant, law-abiding Jew.

What he effected was a transfiguration of the best of that classical Israelite religion—temple, law, priesthood, sacrifice, covenant—into the institutions, sacraments, practices, and structures of his Mystical Body, the Church.

Lots of New Age devotees today want spirituality without religion, and lots of evangelicals want Jesus without religion. Both end up with abstractions. But the one thing Jesus is not is an abstraction. Rather, he is a spiritual power who makes himself available precisely in the dense institutional particularity of his Mystical Body across space and time. Jesus didn’t come to abolish religion; he came to fulfill it.

Reflect: What is the difference between criticizing the Church and calling for its dismantling? How can you follow Jesus’ lead and work to address the issues within the Church today?

[cloudmountain]

The "rebuilding" simply meant that Jesus was the fulfillment of all the O.T. prophecies. So the temple in Jerusalem would be replaced by Jesus.

I think I read that the Jewish people were expecting an earthly Savior who would rebuild Jerusalem and Judaism...not a Savior for our sins. Also maybe the Jews of that day didn't think that the Gentiles would be included in anything.
Maybe I'm wrong.

[MurphsLaw]

No... Not wrong....just a little off target.. But with some help. While the Jews obviously understood this to mean a sign of physical destruction and or rebuilding.... The Body of Christ was the messianic fulfillment of the Jewish faith.
Jesus never said he would "rebuild" the Temple as commonly understood.... The misunderstood "rebuilding" in John 2 is a very unfortunate misnomer attributed to this Gospel, due to some faulty (modern) scriptural translation. And JESUS NEVER said HE would destroy the temple himself- rather as a sign he told the Jews to destroy it themselves and that his Resurrection (3 days) would "raise it up" or in other words "Awaken it" in the form of his Body:

20 The Jews then said: Six and forty years was this temple in building; and wilt thou raise it up in three days?
21 But he spoke of the temple of his body.

So yes, Christ was fulfilling Judeo prophecy - but with the Resurrection of his body. What the Jews were "expecting" was of no bearing, and Christ was very vocal as he: "criticized the corruption in the institutional religion of his time" .... not wanting it dismantled , but to raise it up and awaken it.

That's the meat of this reflection....
"Jesus didn’t come to abolish religion; he came to fulfill it" Too many people today out of despair want to abolish religion, and the Church, and also at the same time too many feel the Church is beyond criticism. You can have one without the other, committed to the continual fulfillment or renewal of the Body of a Christ.