The Gospel of the Mass of November 9, 2025

The Temple and the Tomb

Sister Ange Marie, Benedictine nun and member of the Christian community of the Notre-Dame-des-Anges chapel (Paris 6th).

We know the importance of miracles or signs (semeion, in ancient Greek) in the Gospel according to Saint John. The first sign of Jesus is the water turned into wine. Then comes the episode of the Temple merchants, chased away apparently for no particular reason since they provide the necessities for the offerings (animals to sacrifice, coins to change). This attention to signs runs through all of biblical history.

Thus, in the 8th century BC. BC, the prophet Isaiah comes to announce to King Ahab that the Lord will prevent the invasion of other peoples into the land of Israel. And to confirm this promise, Isaiah proclaims, a sign will be given: quite simply, the birth of a child, as if to emphasize that hope comes from life, not from war (Is 7:14).

When Jesus dismisses the merchants from the Temple, he means that it is no longer necessary to sacrifice animals to escape the cycle of murderous violence: he himself is both the altar and the sacrificed victim. He will do it in his flesh once and for all. And the sign that Jesus gives to confirm it is the resurrection of the body.

A sign that will emerge when Jesus brings Lazarus out of the tomb (Jn 11) but even more so when he himself rises from the dead to new life (Jn 20).