God Wants Our Hearts, Not Our Shows of Religion

oming out of ordinary time yesterday, I did my best to enjoy "Fat" Tuesday to the utmost. But the cafeteria menu at my work had other ideas: portabello mushrooms, maccaroni and green beans. It may as well have been this coming Friday. Ah well, herewe are in Lent. Wow, it seems like yesterday we were opening up presents and decking trees, but here we are again. I always feel as though Lent sneaks up on me like a thief in the night.

"Even now, return to me with your whole heart." The words of Joel from today's readings. But who was Joel, and what troubles had the people of God faced that a return--a "metanoia," as the Greek New Testament would say--a turn-around repentance was necessary?

Two clues give the most likely answer. Joel mentions Judah's troubles with no mention of Israel's, making this likely after the splitting of David's kingdom into Israel in the North and Judah--the "Jews"--in the South in 930 BC, after the destruction of Israel, invaded and plundered by the Reaver-like Assyrians in 722 BC.

The second clue takes us even further forward, since Joel tells us of a Temple. The first Temple was destroyed at the time of the Babylonian conquering of Jerusalem in 586 BC and most of the people exiled. But the Babylonians fell to the more liberal Persians (as Daniel predicted they would in his interpretation of his own vision and of the vision of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar) who allowed them to rebuild a (much smaller and underwhelming)  temple in 516 BC, which would be later expanded by the evil King Herod of Bethlehem fame, and just as Jesus predicted, destroyed in AD 70.

So we're some time after 516 BC, likely before the events of the Greek oppression and successful Maccabean rebellion in 167 BC against the anti-Christ Seleucid King Antiochus IV, since those events were so revolutionary it strains the imagination Joel would not make reference to them had he lived in those times, and the Jews are underwhelmed and disappointed that after their regional dominance under Solomon, their return from exile has still not brought them back to power. But Joel refocuses the Jews on that which really matters. The human heart. Repentance and turning toward God. Even before Jesus came, we see the prophets preaching that "my kingdom is not of this World." As Jesus says in the Gospel today, the outward appearances do not matter to God. He doesn't need the biggest shiniest temple, and he's not impressed by your showy displays of holiness.What matters is what is done in secret, your true striving for his glory. Trust that all will be revealed at the end of time. Strive for righteousness, and not for the World's definitions of success.