Word of the day

A reading from the Book of Revelation
RV 10:8-11

I, John, heard a voice from heaven speak to me.
Then the voice spoke to me and said:
“Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel
who is standing on the sea and on the land.”
So I went up to the angel and told him to give me the small scroll.
He said to me, “Take and swallow it.
It will turn your stomach sour,
but in your mouth it will taste as sweet as honey.”
I took the small scroll from the angel’s hand and swallowed it.
In my mouth it was like sweet honey,
but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.
Then someone said to me, “You must prophesy again
about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”

From the Gospel according to Luke
LK 19:45-48

Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out
those who were selling things, saying to them,
“It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer,
but you have made it a den of thieves.”
And every day he was teaching in the temple area.
The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people, meanwhile,
were seeking to put him to death,
but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose
because all the people were hanging on his words.

Jesus did not cast out the priests and scribes from the Temple, but those who were doing business, the businessmen of the Temple. The words in the Gospel passage are very strong. It says, “The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people were seeking to put him to death, but they could find no way to accomplish their purpose because all the people were hanging on his words.” Jesus’ strength, therefore, was His word, His testimony and His love. And where Jesus is, there is no place for worldliness, no place for corruption! (Santa Marta, 20 November 2015)