Ecclesiasticus 44:1. 9-13 / Mark 11:11-26
Each of us have our own ideas of what a church should be like.
It may be about the design and the appearance, the colour of the paint, the furnishing, etc., right down to how the staff should dress and what the priests should be doing.
And because each person can have a peculiar opinion about such matters, the Church has issued rules and guidelines to whatever imaginable point of contention so that there can be something to refer to and to follow.
In the gospel, when Jesus went about driving out those who were selling and buying in the Temple, He was not just trying to impose His personal views on what the Temple should be like.
He quoted this scripture passage: "My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples. But you have turned it into a robbers' den."
So it seems that the Temple has become a religious commercial and business centre and the original purpose of it being a centre of prayer was eroded and diluted.
What had happened to the Temple can also happen to any church. People can forget that they have entered the house of God and that they have come to pray to God and not to prey on others.
And Jesus also gave two teachings about prayer:
1. Everything you ask and pray for, believe that you have it already, and it will be yours.
2. When you stand in prayer, forgive whatever you have against anybody, so that your Father in heaven may forgive your failings too.
So to pray is to ask for forgiveness and also to forgive others. There can be no other opinions about that. Because that is what God wants of us.