GOSPEL MESSAGE & RECORDING
Let us look closely at the Gospel portion of the day and see how our fathers wished to guide our thoughts towards Christ. At first glance, it seems strange that two events are being told in this portion; the first has Christ telling His followers that He will die and rise in three days, the second shows a scene in Capernaum where He and Peter are asked to pay the temple tax. But, in actuality, the Bible portion is referencing merely one continuous message. Let us look at another time where Christ foretold His death and resurrection, in John 2:19 Christ states, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The temple is referring to His own Body rather than the building. Now in terms of the physical temple St. Hilary of Poitiers explains that the temple tax, which was a didrachma (a silver coin worth two drachmas), was for the redemption of soul and body, which is ultimately a type of salvation in Christ, for we are to offer up a type of didrachma, we are to offer ourselves both in soul and body.
When we say that we are offering ourselves up to God, we fulfilling the words of St. Paul when he writes in 1 Corinthians 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” As a quick tangent, there are two things which are consecrated with Holy Chrism, both of those things are the Holy Church; be that as a building or a newly ordained Christian. Both the building and the person receives an Altar; the building has one made by hands, the person has one within the center of their being (their heart). On to both, the Holy Eucharist is placed and both have their own priest serving at their own respected Altar; the ordained priest serves in the building, and you serve at your own Altar which is your heart.
Now as the Temple of God, as well as priests of the said temple, we must ensure proper maintenance and proper sacrifices of the temple. The sacrifices which we are to offer are the Fruits of the Holy Spirit with proper thanksgiving. However, just as the Altar was desecrated by the pagans through animal sacrifices and other blood offerings, the Altar of our hearts is also able to become defiled. This is why it is stated in Ezekiel 18:24 that, “when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity and does the same abominable things that the wicked man does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds which he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, he shall die.” It is not death but destruction and desecration of the Holy Altar which is the heart. My dear brothers and sisters, we must all guard ourselves against sin to ensure that the sacred Altar, which is our very hearts, does not become defiled. But, when it is desecrated with sin, we restore that Blessed Altar through Holy Confession for our God is no wrathful God but rather the God of pure mercy and forgiveness.