Daily Mass Reading and Reflection on November 21st 2025

First Reading: (1 Maccabees 4:36–37, 52–59)

Responsorial Psalm
1 Chronicles 29

Response: We praise your glorious name, O Lord.

Alleluia
Gospel: (Luke 19:45–48)

Reflection

“My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.” (Luke 19:46)

Today the Church commemorates the Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a celebration of her total dedication to God from her earliest years. As we honor her, we pray that through her intercession, we too may receive the fullness of God’s grace.

In the Gospel reading, Jesus enters the temple, God’s holy dwelling place, and finds it overtaken by merchants and money changers who have turned a sacred space into a place of dishonesty and profit. His reaction is decisive: He drives them out. The temple, meant to be a place where people encounter God, had become a marketplace and a scam center. In righteous anger, also where we get the term righteous indignation, Jesus restores its dignity.

Just as shocking as the scene itself is the response of the religious elite. Instead of rejoicing at the cleansing of God’s house, they seek to destroy Jesus. Why? Because He disrupted their comfort, their benefits, and the corruption they quietly enjoyed. He interfered with the “business” they had made of religion.

“Let Us Whip Out All Attitudes of Robbers From God’s Temple.”

The message is not just about ancient Jerusalem.
It is about us.
It is about today’s Church.
It is about our hearts, which are also God’s temples.

Yes, many attitudes today still turn God’s house into a robber’s den:

• Stealing from God’s house, taking from the poor, misusing church property, treating communal offerings as personal possessions.

• Exploitation and unaccountability,  siphoning or mismanaging finances meant for God’s work.

• Monetizing spiritual duties, charging for blessings, sacraments, favors, or miracles.

• Using the Church as camouflage,  appearing pious in church while living deceitfully outside.

• Favoritism toward the rich, honoring wealth while ignoring the poor.

• Dirty politics within the Church,  fighting for positions, forming factions, manipulating elections.

• Feeding on the sheep instead of feeding the sheep, prioritizing personal gain over pastoral care.

Jesus’ whip in the Gospel is not meant to destroy us but to awaken us. He wants to drive out every dishonesty, every hypocrisy, every attachment that makes His temple unworthy.

Why did they seek to kill Him?

Because He exposed their comfort zones.
He confronted their corruption.
He disrupted what they benefitted from.

And the same is true today:

When we confront wrongdoing, some will hate us.
When we shine light on darkness, those who love the dark grow uncomfortable.

But what should offend us is not the preacher, it is our own weaknesses.

Prayer

Lord, cleanse us.
Drive out from our hearts every attitude that desecrates Your temple, 
every dishonesty, every selfishness, every impurity,
every form of spiritual robbery.

Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
may we keep Your house holy,
and may our lives be true houses of prayer.

Amen.

God bless you.
With Fr. Blessed 🙌