1 Maccabees 4:36-37, 52-59 / Luke 6:1-13
One of the most difficult attitudes to confront, whether as a teenager or as an adult, is peer pressure.
If we want to stay in and with the crowd, if we want to be accepted by the rest, if we don't want to be the odd-one-out, then we just have to submit to peer pressure.
And that might mean staying silent and not doing anything even when we see injustice and oppression and corruption and immorality happening in front of us.
When Jesus walked into the Temple that day, He already knew that there was a price on his head; His life was at stake.
It was a day when He should take it easy, keep quiet and do nothing about the scandals and the irreverence and the profanity that were happening around Him.
But it was happening in the Temple, in His Father's house!
It was the same Temple that we heard about in the 1st reading that was rededicated with so much reverence and rejoicing after the pagans had desecrated it.
The people prostrated in adoration and praised God for being with them again, because the Temple symbolized the presence of God among them.
So when Jesus cleansed the Temple that day by driving out those who were selling and making use of the Temple for their profits, He not only drove out injustice and corruption, from the holy place.
He also restored the Temple to its sacred dignity as the dwelling place of God, a refuge for those in trouble and in need, and a sanctuary of life and love.
Jesus also wants to cleanse the Temple which is in our hearts.
Our hearts is the dwelling place of God. May we keep it holy and sacred, pure and filled with God's love always.