My Father's house is a house of prayer

Today's Scripture readings (Mac 4: 36-37, 52-59 and Lk 19: 45-48) are about the rebuilding of  the Temple, a place of worship and prayer.      Our very beings are dwelling places for our God, built into holy dwellings through our baptism, renewed into the image of Christ in each Eucharist and cleansed in the sacrament of Reconciliation. The Spirit of God dwells within us and in all of creation. Just as the Gentiles in the first reading and the merchants in the Gospel  were using the Temple for purposes other than giving honor and glory to God, so, too, can we misuse the Temples of our bodies and of the universe. Both we and the universe were brought into existence to give glory and honor to our Creator, to further God's Kingdom here on this earth and to radiate God's goodness, love, justice, compassion, and forgiveness, as we wait the return of Christ when heaven and earth will be transformed. The question we now face is: what are we doing in the here and now to realize a world in which  wars will cease and nations, religions, cultures, races, women and men, parents and children, the young and the old, humankind and the universe  are working toward the harmony promised us when Christ returns?