[LA EN]
The Mondays of Lent in the Traditional Roman Rite are days of special penance and reflection, inserted into a progressive path toward Easter. The liturgy of these ferial days is profoundly catechetical, preparing the catechumens for Baptism and calling the faithful to conversion. The practice of the “Stations” (Statio) in Rome is a central element of this tradition. On this day, the Station is at the Basilica of the Four Holy Crowned Martyrs (Ss. Quatuor Coronatorum), on the Caelian Hill. These saints, probably a group of four sculptors or four soldiers martyred under Emperor Diocletian for refusing to pay homage to pagan idols, are models of fortitude in the faith and of witness to Christ unto death. The choice of this basilica, with its austere and fortified appearance, evokes the idea of the Church as a spiritual fortress and of the Christian as a soldier of Christ in constant battle against evil. The pilgrimage to this place reminds the faithful of the need for courage and perseverance in living the faith, especially during the Lenten season, which is a time of more intense spiritual combat.
📖 Introit (Ps 53, 3-4; ib., 5)
Deus, in nómine tuo salvum me fac, et in virtúte tua líbera me: Deus, exáudi oratiónem meam: áuribus pércipe verba oris mei. Quóniam aliéni insurrexérunt in me: et fortes quæsiérunt ánimam meam.
O God, in your Name, save me, and by your power free me. O God, hear my prayer; attend to the words of my mouth. For strangers have risen against me and the mighty seek my life.
📖 Reading (3 Kings 3, 16-28)
In those days, two women of bad life presented themselves before King Solomon. One of them spoke thus: Deign to hear me, my lord. I and this woman dwelt in the same house, and I gave birth next to her in one room. Three days after my delivery, she also gave birth. We were together and no one else was in the house but us. The son of this woman died during the night, for while sleeping she suffocated him. And rising in the deep silence of the night, while this your servant was sleeping, she took my son who was at my side, and placing him next to her, put in his place her son who had died. When, in the morning, I rose to nurse my son, he appeared dead to me, but, looking more carefully, when it grew lighter, I recognized that it was not my son, the one I had given birth to. The other woman answered her: It is not true what you say, for your son is the one who is dead, and mine is the one who lives. And the first replied: You lie, for it is my son who is alive, and yours the one who is dead. And thus they argued before the king. Then the king said: This one says: My son lives and yours is dead. And the other answers: No, yours is the one who is dead and mine lives. Therefore the king added: Bring me a sword. And when they brought the sword, the king said: Divide the living child into two parts, give half to one and half to the other woman. Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king (for her heart was moved with compassion for her son): Lord, I beg you, give her the living child; do not kill him. On the contrary, the other said: Let it be neither mine nor yours, but divided. Then the king answered: Give to that one the living child, do not kill him, for she is his mother. All Israel heard the wise sentence by which the king had judged; and they were filled with great respect for the king, seeing that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.
📖 Gospel (Jn 2, 13-25)
At that time, with the Passover of the Jews drawing near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem and found in the temple sellers of oxen, sheep, and doves, and money-changers seated. And having made a whip of cords, He drove all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, throwing to the ground the coins of the money-changers and overturning their tables. To those who sold doves He said: Take these things away and do not make of the house of my Father a marketplace. Then His disciples remembered that it is written: The zeal for your house has consumed me. The Jews therefore answered and said to Him: What sign do you show us, since you do these things? Jesus answered them with these words: Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then retorted: Forty-six years have been spent building this temple and you will raise it up in three days? He was speaking, however, of the temple of His body. After He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. While He was in Jerusalem during the Passover feast, many believed in His Name, seeing the miracles He performed. But Jesus did not trust Himself to them, because He knew all men and did not need anyone to bear witness about man. For He Himself knew what was in man.
⚖️ The discernment of divine justice
The Gospel of the purification of the Temple reveals the divine zeal of Christ, which is not uncontrolled anger, but a manifestation of His messianic authority and His justice. In driving out the merchants, Our Lord not only restores the holiness of the physical place, but teaches that the true temple, the human soul, must be purified of all worldly commerce and all attachment that profanes it. Saint Augustine explains that the whip of cords symbolizes the divine correction that frees us from the bonds of sin (Sermon 112). Christ’s answer about the destruction and rebuilding of the temple in three days is the key to the entire scene: He Himself is the new and definitive Temple. His Body, sacrificed on the Cross and risen, becomes the only place of true worship “in spirit and in truth”. Thus, Lent invites us to allow Christ, with the whip of His Word and His grace, to drive out from our soul — the temple of the Holy Spirit — everything that does not belong to God, so that we may be rebuilt with Him in the Resurrection.
The wisdom of King Solomon in the reading from the Book of Kings is a prefiguration of the wisdom and justice of Christ. Solomon’s judgment is not based on external evidence, but penetrates the innermost part of the human heart to discern the truth. The sword, an instrument of judgment, reveals the interior disposition of the two women: one, the true mother, moved by love and mercy, prefers to renounce her son rather than see him dead; the other, moved by envy and selfishness, prefers destruction to renunciation. Saint Thomas Aquinas would see in this scene an allegory of justice that distinguishes good from evil, not by appearances, but by charity which is the form of all virtues. This justice that unveils the truth of the heart is the same that Christ exercises in the Temple. He does not judge according to the flesh, but knows “what was in man”. The Christian is called to have a heart like that of the true mother, a heart that loves God and neighbor above self, ready for sacrifice for life and for truth.
By uniting the two liturgies, we perceive that divine justice, whose cry resounds in the Introit (“save me, O God… free me”), operates in such a way as to purify and discern. Both Solomon’s sword and Christ’s whip are instruments of the same divine Wisdom that separates truth from falsehood, love from selfishness, the sacred from the profane. God’s judgment is not primarily to condemn, but to save, revealing the hidden truth in hearts. The scene of Solomon’s tribunal and the purification of the Temple teach us that true worship of God requires an upright heart and genuine charity. Lent is the favorable time to present ourselves before this Wise and Just King, asking Him to drive out from us the “merchants” of our passions and to reveal in us the true love, the love that is ready to sacrifice everything so that divine life in us and in others does not perish, preparing us to celebrate the victory of the Temple of His Body at Easter.