Saturday, Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

In today’s first reading, Jude calls on his listeners and readers, ‘Keep yourselves within the love of God’. The love of God is assured and we are called to keep ourselves within God’s love. According to Jude, God’s love for us is an active love. Jude declares that God’s love can ‘keep you from falling and bring you safe to his glorious presence, innocent and happy’. God’s love is at work on our behalf, strengthening us when our faith is put to the test, and empowering us to reach the goal of eternal life that God desires for us. In his letter to the Romans, Paul asks, ‘If God is for us, who is against us?’ and goes on to declare that nothing ‘in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’. Both Paul and Jude are reminding us that God will do all God can do to ensure that his loving purpose for our lives will come to pass. Our calling is to surrender ourselves to God’s good work in our lives so that God can bring that work to completion. God’s good work on our behalf was fully revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. In today’s gospel reading, the chief priests and scribes who oversaw the Temple in Jerusalem asked Jesus where he got the authority to do the work he had just done in the Temple, driving out those who were buying and selling there, upsetting the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling pigeons. In reality, Jesus received his authority to do what he did from God his Father. The authority of Jesus was the authority of God’s love. This was an authority that strengthened the weak and built up the frail, but it could also tear down structures that failed to serve the well-being of others. God’s love revealed in Jesus would stop at nothing to ensure that all God’s people felt a sense of belonging within God’s love. For such great love that has the power to build up and to tear down we give thanks.