Everyone - pilgrims who had come for Passover, priests, Pharisees - everyone was satisfied that brisk trade was going on around the Jerusalem Temple. The voices of the sacrificial animals drowned out the hymns? Well, what can be done; at least there is always a chance to buy those animals. Surely a pilgrim would not lead them from home, which could be hundreds of kilometers away... The money changers, bargaining with clients, argue and curse so loudly that it is disgraceful? Sad, of course, but denarii have to be exchanged for drachmas and back again... Strictly speaking, no one approves of all this noise in the temple courts, but everyone puts up with it as an unavoidable evil, a kind of tribute to eastern temperament.

Strictly speaking, devout Jews endured all this not so much from indifference as because they were waiting tensely for the coming of the Messiah. Through the prophets the Lord more than once angrily rebuked Israel for its lack of reverence. The words quoted by Jesus, "My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers," belong to the prophet Jeremiah and were spoken 600 years before the events described in the Gospel. But in Israel there was a conviction that the coming Messiah would order the service in the Temple and, so to speak, "put things in order." In carrying out this cleansing, the Lord acts precisely as the One long-awaited Messiah. This is exactly how the Jews perceive it, and therefore they demand a sign from Him.

Yet one cannot fail to notice that the dialogue between the Jews and the Lord takes place in raised tones: the Jews react to Christ's action with a certain hostility. This happens because the Lord calls things by their names. His words, "Do not make My Father's house a house of trade," do not fit at all within the framework of tolerance and indulgence toward lawlessness and irreverence. It is important to see this, because in our own time, when someone tells us about what we softly call "disorders" in our spiritual and church life, we often react the same way the Jews did then, in April of A.D. 27. Fear and uncertainty about God's love make this kind of truth very offensive to people. It is useful to remember this and notice it in ourselves, so as not to become like those Jews.

The story of the wedding in Cana begins by mentioning that the Mother of Jesus was there, and that Jesus Himself and His disciples were also among the guests. From this, and also from the fact that Mary gives instructions during the wedding, one can conclude that this was a celebration of close relatives, where She acted as one of the main organizers with the right to give household instructions. Therefore She told the servants to do whatever Her Son would tell them.

The words Jesus spoke to His Mother sound at first glance like a refusal of the request, but their meaning can also be understood differently: do not worry, everything will be all right. Of course, the meaning of His words is not limited to this; they are much deeper, and much can be read in them about His mission in the world. But it is precisely after these words that Mary passes the authority to Her Son.

Christ is only beginning His preaching. He has not yet been recognized by His relatives, and on this basis some conclude that His Mother did not always understand Him either. But this is not so: She who kept the words about Him in Her heart saw everything much more deeply. It seems that Her words spoken during the wedding, "Do whatever He tells you," refer not only to household concerns.

Jerusalem. The Temple. Walls. Stones. How much they had seen! "Before their eyes" the future Mother of God was raised. Soon after His birth her Son was brought here. This is where He appears as a boy. The grown Christ comes here too. Here He teaches and heals. When you understand how much was revealed to these stones, Christ's words stop sounding surprising: if people stop praising Him, the stones will do it for them (see Luke 19:40), and God can raise up children for Himself from stones (see Luke 3:8).

For some reason, one thinks these stones must have been carefully chosen. They were used to build the Temple of the Living God, to whom everything best belongs. But over the years even the stones must have darkened, the Temple faded, and faith grown dim. And then the Owner Himself of this holy place comes and, though He turns everything upside down here, in reality puts everything back where it belongs: trade to the world, and the Temple to God. For this, among other things, He was later lifted up by that same world on the place called the Skull.

And in today's reading from the Book of Acts we see that the disciples really are not greater than their Teacher (see John 15:20). They do the same thing He did: they use the Jerusalem Temple for its proper purpose. The sick should not receive alms at the Temple, but healing. We too would do well to take up a broom and go clear the rubble in our own heart, the new Temple of the Living God.