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Keeping It Holy
“Take these things out of here,” Jesus shouted as He encountered vendors who set up booths in the temple courtyard (not in the temple). There were money changers, oxen and sheep sellers, and holy water and surely some sort of souvenirs and cords to tie up cattle. It was just flat a mass of mess. It is the only moment, recorded in the Bible, where Jesus, completely loses his temper, grabs a whip to get the livestock out of there, and probably some of the salesmen.
 To Jesus, and to all of us, be we Christians or Jews or probably even Muslims, the temples of worship, a gathering place and house of prayer for all comers, all nations, and, horrors, the house of prayer for all people had become a den of thieves and robbers. He declared that the structure made by hands would be replaced by a temple without hands. In Mark, Jesus declares it will be a temple made not of stones, but “of the gathered members of the new Israel which He was incorporating into himself.”
And look what mankind has continued to do: build enormous temples, basilicas, churches, some made of solid glass, and all costing millions that could have been shared with the poor to feed their families and animals. Souvenirs, objects that say “I was there” can be used for holy moments and prayer when one returned home, as if the little bottle of holy water or a medallion for the neck chain, or a ceramic cross with Jesus on it, would give one faith and peace. These are souvenirs. I wonder if they have much power.
But if one really wants to see the domination of religious, maybe holy souvenirs, visit the various places where Holy Mary has appeared or caused a miracle. Most spectacular is Lourdes in France, which is an entire town of shops winding down a tight road that hardly has room for the masses of buses bring in the sick, the tourist, the nuns and worshipers to the mecca of tourism where holy water from the Gave River flows through its premises and is coveted because of healing miracles that happened there at a grotto, whose stones hanging over it are smooth as silk because of the millions of hands that have touched it over the years.
How did it happen? A young girl, Bernadette, with two friends needed to cross a stream, which meant wading through the river. She saw on the other side an almost ghostly Lady who looked at her, smiled, and signaled her to advance. Bernadette rubbed her eyes, shut them, opened them and the Lady was still there smiling at her. She fell to her knees with a rosary in her hands, and tried to pray, but her arm was paralyzed. She returned home, not knowing who she had seen. On February 14 she accompanied her sister and a few other children to the grotto. She kneeled and again saw the Lady, and over a period of time, she had 18 visions and meetings with the Holy Lady. In the last visit, villagers finally believed that this truly was the Blessed Virgin Mary.
And so began the pilgrimage to that holy sight, and the endless tourist shops arose like a giant balloon and one could have their own statues of Virgin Mary in her blue gown and bottles of holy water and candles, images of the kneeling Bernadette before the Virgin Mary, just to name a few. It was a way those who had visited could take something home with them and put it on their private altars, or carry them in their purses for protection. And meanwhile merchants were making good income. The ideal would be that all the money would be put into helping the sick who came there for miracle healings, and to keep the many cathedrals and hotels alive. I was disappointed when I saw that, turn over a statue to discover it was made in the Republic of China.
I flashed back at the consumerism in the temple, the tables of which Jesus overturned in anger while pointing out the evil of making money in a holy place. These merchants were outside the basilica, but one could not get into that destination without passing the merchants.
A trip to Mexico to see the Lady of Guadalupe was an eye-opener, mostly because in the giant space surrounding an opened area where her image is idolized by billions, I saw the pain and dedication the Mexican people will endure, just to get their - even on their knees - to pray before a large piece of fabric which has the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Truly, it broke my heart but stirred my adoration for those who suffer exasperating pain just to hope for healing. The story is about Juan Diego, an Aztec, who had turned his life over to God, saw an apparition of Mary on Dec 9, 1531. Holy Mary asked him to build a church on that very spot, yet the bishop though it a fraud. Holy Mary appeared a second time three days later after appearing to his sick uncle Juan Bernardino. And she imprinted an image of herself on Juan Diego’s “tilma” or cloak, which hangs in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe site. She is the symbol of faith for so many Latinos not only in Mexico but all-over Latin nations. And the souvenir shops in Tepeyac, or really anywhere in Mexico, are packed with images that range from Christmas ornaments, to lit up images decorated in light, to T-shirts and whatever one could imagine. There are even Holy Mary’s images on colored tortillas. But what most grabbed my soul, were those determined people, crawling the last meters on their knees, praying over and over that Holy Mary heal them of their illness. It not only broke my heart, but it gave me an admiration for all those who suffer to be saved.
I saw this as well in Tibet when hiking around Mt. Kailash, in remote Tibet, China, where worshipers and petitioners crawled on their knees or by walking by body, lying down, then pulling up a body’s length, stepping there, prostrating again, and repeating the movement for 3 days to have all sins removed (although one round can do it as well.) At this site, there were no souvenirs because not only was it the holy ground of Buddhism and Hinduism and Taoism but it was miles away from civilization.
In Paris, France, I had the privilege to step inside the church of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, a medal I have always worn on a chain around my neck. It is extremely popular in Latin America. Virgin de Milagros it is called there. Holy Mary appeared to a novice, Catherine, one of the daughters of the Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, in 1830, and asked that a specific metal be made promising that “all who wore the medal will receive great graces.” I wear mine endlessly. The front has a picture of Holy Mary, as the novice described her, and on the back is a design with a large M and a cross. This is a live church, constantly packed with petitioners, in the middle of Paris. There was only a tiny gift shop, but mostly the church is packed with petitioners who are crippled, sick, and desperate.
A special place for me was a visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in England, amid the Anglican environment. The story goes that in 1061 a noblewoman named Richeldis de Faverches said Holy Mary appeared in a vision and showed her the house of Holy Mary in Nazareth where the Annunciation took place and asked her to build a replica of it. It was done mid-1100s. In 1538 King Henry III’s solders sacked the priory Walsingham, killed two monks and destroyed the shrine. Pope Leo XIII in 1897 restored it nearby as a Roman Catholic shrine. but the Holy House is in the care of the Church of England (Anglican.) When I went there during my training for ordination, there were no crowds. There was a large stone area down which one climbs to bathe or just touch your toes in the holy waters for healing. I saw no tourist shops in 1994.
If I had the privilege I’d try to visit as many sites where Holy Mary appeared. They are all over the place, in the US, and Europe, and South America and the Middle-East and China and Vietnam, and Russia. She has used her appearance to give us a message through some innocent person of faith. There are so many miracles and appearances not only in the Holy Bible, but also in the life since the death of Jesus Christ. It seems His Mother appears often to inspire people not to give in or give up or lose faith. One of the most modern ones where Holy Mary has appeared various times above the Coptic Orthodox Church in Zeitoun, Egypt beginning on 2 April 1968. It is encouraging because maybe God has not given up on those of us who believe deeply. I pray nightly for the Coptic Christians in Egypt and Sinai, where so much of our history occurred, where there is danger in the presence of Jhadists and all sorts of terrorist groups like Isis where the Coptic Christians are often killed and abused because of their worship, which is right in the line of so much of the life of Christianity.
What Jesus wanted was to keep the merchants outside of the holy places and keep our worship safe and the concentration on what He wanted to teach us so we could love one another without failure or fear or discrepancy. We are His. And His mother continues to give us messages so we never lose faith in His love and His words. We don’t need an object to know Him.
~ Rev
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audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
www.audreytaylorgonzalez.com
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