This week of Creighton University's Spiritual Exercises online retreat is interesting - Jesus Confronts Religious Leaders. The readings we're given are of Jesus overturning the tables of the moneychangers in the temple (Matthew 21:12-17), and Jesus telling off the Pharisees and Scribes (Matthew 23:1-39). Larry Gillick SJ writes ...
Ignatius moves us to contemplate the freedom that Jesus possesses stemming from his having heard and having believed who he is in the eyes of his heavenly Father. He knows who he is and he knows too the holiness of the ancient traditions and practices that his teachings build on, yet challenge. We are watching and listening to a person of fidelity both to himself and to his conflicts.
He is free to hear the arguments against him and his ways. He desires the engagements with his opponents as he was eager to engage the sick and needy around him. Fidelity is not being stubborn. Jesus fearlessly stays open to the dialogue and even to the threats. Rather, the word is passionate. For Ignatius, the word passionate means a fiery openness to whatever is offered. We consider this man of passion, of intense, open-hearted, open-handed availability for him to be reverenced as well as offended.
When I first became a Christian, my idea of Jesus was scandalized by the examples of his volatility. I'd always thought of him as almost emotionless, impassible, above the fray. A Jesuit I used to know told me my Jesus was plastic because I never let him get angry; he said that anger meant emotional engagement. But I grew up in a family where anger didn't equal anything remotely positive, so I still feel conflicted about a passionate Jesus - I find him both attractive and disturbing.
If you begin watching this video clip from the movie Jesus at 4:05, you'll see Jesus (Jeremy Sisto) coming to the temple, seeing the moneychangers, and seriously losing his aplomb ......
