According to John, the scene in this week’s gospel took place at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, on the first of Jesus’ four visits to Jerusalem. At each subsequent visit the Temple authorities lay in wait for Jesus, increasingly keen to eliminate him, but unable to do so till his Hour had come. The other gospels place both this incident and all other scenes of Jesus in Jerusalem as the final climax of Jesus’ ministry. Whichever is correct, the incident is the basic cause of Jesus’ arrest and his tortured death. By his action Jesus had demonstrated that the worship carried out in the Temple had become vain in God’s eyes owing to its lack of integrity and must be superseded. To the Temple authorities this was intolerable, and he must be removed. Again, Jesus demanded a complete reversal of standards. His puzzling saying about building the Temple anew in his body was at last understood by his disciples after his resurrection when they realised it meant the Temple that was his Body, the Church. The material building which had been the centre of worship was no longer important. Henceforth all worship would take place in any place, but within the Christian community. The community – or the Church – was now the place of sanctification and of prayer to God. What does it mean to think of the Church as Jesus’ Body? What does it mean to you to be a member of Christ’s Body, the Church?