I guess this is a week for zeal. On Wednesday, the Pope's General Audience spoke of St. Boniface as having an "ardent zeal for God" (text at Zenit). Tomorrow, Sunday's Gospel reading for Mass mentions Jesus' own zeal. The meaning of this Gospel reading is one that I have misunderstood for a long time. I hadn't planned to write about it today, but I ended up looking at it a good bit today after a discussion over it last night, so here it is.
This Sunday's Gospel reading for Mass is John 2:13-25, about Jesus' cleansing of the temple. Angered at the money changers at the temple, Jesus told them, "Take these out of here, and stop making my Father's house a marketplace." In John 2:17, we are told that the disciples remembered Psalm 69:9/10, applied in the future tense there to Jesus, "Zeal for your house will consume me." In the Psalm, David prayed, "Because zeal for your house consumes me, I am scorned by those who scorn you."
Different translations give different words for "consume me". The King James Version and the Douay-Rheims both say the "zeal of" your house has "eaten me up." Another translation says "devoured me".
The word "zeal" in Scripture can mean both Godly zeal and jealousy -- both jealousy on God's behalf and jealousy turned against God's people. It is often is used in Scripture for a malicious rage against Christians, as in Acts 5:17-18 (The high priest and those with him were filled with "jealousy" -- the same word as "zeal" in the original text) and Acts 17:5 ("The Jews became jealous . . . and formed a mob", again, the same word in the original language as "zeal").
I Kings 19:14 is the familiar passage in which Elijah says, "I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for
the people of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy
altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am
left; and they seek my life, to take it away." (RSV) It is the same passage that is used in the Carmelite motto as "With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of Hosts", which is just a different translation of the words of Elijah.
I suppose that distinction between jealousy/zeal for God and jealousy toward others could be the beginning of something
I could write someday distinguishing the "zeal" of the Carmelite motto from the "passions" against which St. John of the Cross warns. That will have to wait for another day, or another year.
To be "devoured" by jealousy for the Lord of Hosts suggests all of that passionate and self-giving love for God that Pope Benedict XVI wrote about in Deux Caritas Est, 7:
"Even if eros is at first mainly covetous and
ascending, a fascination for the great promise of happiness, in drawing near to
the other, it is less and less concerned with itself, increasingly seeks the
happiness of the other, is concerned more and more with the beloved, bestows
itself and wants to “be there for” the other. The element of agape thus
enters into this love, for otherwise eros is impoverished and even loses
its own nature."
Christ's consuming, jealous love for God's house is completed in the crucifixion, in His giving of Himself completely for the love of God and the love of God's people. That is what makes Psalm 69:9 messianic and prophetic. It is about zeal, and it is also about His being completely consumed by it to the point of acting in love for God without regard to self-interest, and giving of Himself completely. The fulfillment of that zeal for God's house is seen both in Jesus driving the money changers from the temple (warning them against their sins out of love for His Father's house) and also in His dying for their sins.
Here are more commentaries from saints, the popes, and the Catechism, on Christ's zeal for God's house:
Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, March 19, 2006:
"The Gospel just proclaimed refers precisely to this: Jesus drove the
merchants and money-changers out of the temple. Through the verse of a
Psalm: "Zeal for your house has consumed me" (cf. Ps 69[68]: 10), the
Evangelist provides a key for the interpretation of this significant
episode. And Jesus was "consumed" by this "zeal" for the "house of
God", which was being used for purposes other than those for which it
was intended."
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 584:
"Jesus went up to the Temple as the privileged place
of encounter with God. For him, the Temple was the dwelling of his
Father, a house of prayer, and he was angered that its outer court had
become a place of commerce. He drove merchants out of it
because of jealous love for his Father: "You shall not make my Father's
house a house of trade. His disciples remembered that it was written,
'Zeal for your house will consume me.'" After his Resurrection his apostles retained their reverence for the Temple."
Pope Pius XII, Encyclical Mediator Dei on the Sacred Liturgy, 189:
"We desire to commend and urge the adornment of churches and altars. Let
each one feel moved by the inspired word, "the zeal of thy house hath eaten
me up"; and strive as much as in him lies that everything in the
church, including vestments and liturgical furnishings, even though not rich nor
lavish, be perfectly clean and appropriate, since all is consecrated to the
Divine Majesty. If we have previously disapproved of the error of those who
would wish to outlaw images from churches on the plea of reviving an ancient
tradition, We now deem it Our duty to censure the inconsiderate zeal of those
who propose for veneration in the Churches and on the altars, without any just
reason, a multitude of sacred images and statues, and also those who display
unauthorized relics, those who emphasize special and insignificant practices,
neglecting essential and necessary things. They thus bring religion into
derision and lessen the dignity of worship."
Pope John Paul II, Meeting with Polish Bishops Conference, 1999:
"Dear
Brothers, fix your eyes on the shining examples of their lives, so that
love of God and man may grow stronger in your hearts and in the hearts
of all those whom you serve as Pastors. An indispensable condition for
fruitful pastoral care is a personal relationship with Christ, which
shows itself primarily in prayer and in love filled with a spirit of
sacrifice for the Church, our Mother. “Zeal for your house has consumed
me, and the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me” (Ps
69:9)."
St. Ambrose, On the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter XXX:
"Love faith. For by his devotion and faith Josiah won great love for himself from his enemies. For he celebrated the Lord’s passover when he was eighteen years old, as no one had done it before him. As then in zeal he was superior to those who went before him, so do ye, my sons, show zeal for God. Let zeal for God search you through, and devour you, so that each one of you may say: “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.” An apostle of Christ was called the zealot. But why do I speak of an apostle? The Lord Himself said: “The zeal of thine house hath eaten Me up.” Let it then be real zeal for God, not mean earthy zeal, for that causes jealousy."
St. Augustine, Homilies on the Gospel of John:
"Then the disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up:” because by this zeal of God’s house, the Lord cast these men out of the temple. Brethren, let every Christian among the members of Christ be eaten up with zeal of God’s house. Who is eaten up with zeal of God’s house? He who exerts himself to have all that he may happen to see wrong there corrected, desires it to be mended, does not rest idle: who if he cannot mend it, endures it, laments it. . . . Therefore, let the zeal of God’s house eat thee up: let the zeal of God’s house eat up every Christian, zeal of that house of God of which he is a member. For thy own house is not more important than that wherein thou hast everlasting rest. . . . I am about to give you counsel: may He who is within give it; for though it be through me, it is He that gives it. You know what to do, each one of you, in his own house, with his friend, his tenant, his client, with greater, with less: as God grants an entrance, as He opens a door for His word, do not cease to win for Christ; because you were won by Christ."
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