Clearing His Dwelling Place

In today’s gospel, Jesus drives out those who have turned the temple from a place of prayer into a market place. His dwelling place needs to be free of the distractions of this world. Free from the enticements of money and worldly pleasures. Our bodies are also God’s dwelling place. “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16)

In order to allow God to dwell in us, we need to make room for him. We need to cleanse our hearts from anything that distracts us or tempts us. It is easy to find pleasure in the things of this world and allow them to draw us away from Christ. So we must do what the Lord himself taught us to do. Jesus often when off by himself to pray. He would go up on the mountain or into the desert to pray, to a place of quiet. We may want the Holy Spirit to dwell in us but we don’t make room for him. We have allowed so many other things to clutter His space. We need to do our “spring cleaning” more than once a year. At times when we feel that he is far away is a perfect time to take inventory of his dwelling place and see what may be keeping him from being close. Have we let fear or pride take root in us? Have we allowed power or money to seduce us? Have we been away from confession too long and gotten comfortable in our sin? Do we spend more time in front of the television than we do in prayer? All of these are questions that we can ask ourselves. Maybe the answer is “No” to each of these questions but there is something else that is taking his place. We each have our own things that trip us up, and that is why we each have to discern this for ourselves. I know for me, I have to guard my heart from the desire for love that only He can fill. So when I feel myself being pulled toward others, wanting their affirmation, I pray for God to fill that empty place that I am trying to fill. I pray for him to help me quit trying to clutter up his dwelling place and allow for things to just be.