Lent Day 19: Cleanse Yourself

Eating many varieties of fresh water fish during my trip to Cambodia is a memorable experience. Sadly, the number of fish catch is decreasing in recent years. Mekong River is overexploited and polluted by waste and garbage. How can we clean up the river and save all the creatures in it?

In today’s gospel from John, we hear Jesus cleansing God’s temple in Jerusalem. Unlike the Synoptic gospels, John emphasizes more its theological meaning than its historical truth. The holy temple is no longer the mighty structure made of stone and built for 46 years. The holy temple is now to be found in the body of Christ. Who is the body of Christ in today’s world? We are the body of Christ, the Church. And yes we need to cleanse ourselves as Jesus told us.

To cleanse ourselves is not an easy task especially as we deal with pollutions. Almost in every daily activity, we give off pollutants to the environment; it can be in the form of carbon dioxide as we drive our car, plastic bags as we go shopping, mercury as we change the battery of our gadgets, and methane as we consume delicious beefsteaks. We can stop using products generating pollutants just like the world has banned products using CFC (chlorofluorocarbon). But it is still hard, as we do not have any alternative yet.

At least we can walk if it is only for a short distance or take public transport instead of driving. Use less plastic bags as much as possible. Consume more green than meet. And there are many other things we can do to reduce the pollutants going to the environment. It is the cleansing process we can do in our time.

Reflection Questions:

What can I do so that I reduce my pollutant contribution to the environment? Do I often consider walking if only for a short distance?
What can we do about waste management in our community have? For instance, do we recycle papers?

Bayu Risanto, S.J. is a graduate student in Atmospheric Science and Meteorology at Creighton University, Omaha NE, U.S.A.