Daddy’s Home

Preparing our homes and hearts for Jesus’ return

03/04/2024

Jn 2:13-25 Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves as well as the money changers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” His disciples recalled the words of Scripture, Zeal for your house will consume me. At this the Jews answered and said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.

I am a big fan of the Hollywood actor Mark Wahlberg. I don’t just like him because he is Catholic, but because he is very proud to be Catholic. On Ash Wednesday, for example, he got his ashes at Mass and posed for a picture with the priest who celebrated that Mass – what a lucky priest! Someone told me once that if Mark Wahlberg is walking down the street and passes a Catholic church, he always goes inside to make a visit to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and then continues on his way. Lately, he’s also on social media promoting praying the Rosary on the Hallow app. He uses the tag-line, “Gotta stay prayed up!” Mark Wahlberg gives me hope for Hollywood.

Several years ago Wahlberg co-starred in a comedy movie with Will Farrell called “Daddy’s Home.” Did you happen to see it? At first I didn’t like the movie because it depicted Will Farrell as a bumbling step-dad who gets belittled and humiliated when the far more handsome, muscle-bound, super-cool biological dad (Mark Wahlberg) shows up. I didn’t like seeing Wahlberg playing the part of the mean dad and basically be a home-wrecker.

But the best part of the movie – spoiler-alert, close your ears! – was when one day Wahlberg’s second wife shows up with Wahlberg’s step-daughter for a visit, and so Wahlberg is the step-dad now. They are all having fun when the girl’s real dad shows up, who’s even more handsome, and has bigger muscles, and rides an even bigger Harley motorcycle, and puts Wahlberg in his place. I think the take-home message of the movie was don’t think you’re the super-cool dad because one day an even more super-cool dad may come home, and put you in your place.

I believe this Wahlberg movie can give us an insight into what is happening in the gospel today. How so? Well, Jesus walks into the Jerusalem Temple and calls it “my Father’s house,” and therefore the Temple is also Jesus house. Why? Well, because what belongs to the Father by right, will belong to the Son by inheritance. Jesus tells Philip, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.” And therefore, Jesus starts cleaning house by making a whip out of cords and driving out of the temple the sheep and oxen and money-changers.

In other words, the scribes and Pharisees were like the spiritual step-fathers of the Jewish people, spiritual surrogates, taking the place of the true Father (God), that is, until “Daddy’s home.” The scribes and Pharisees thought they were hot stuff, like Wahlberg the cool dad, until Jesus came home to take his rightful place. You know, I have learned more good theology from watching movies than from reading hundreds of theology books!

May I share with you a dream I have had ever since I came to Immaculate Conception over ten years ago? I love this beautiful, Gothic-Romanesque church, and there is just one thing wrong with it. Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament is not in his rightful place. He’s shoved over to the side, whereas the priest is in the most prominent place, front and center. All eyes are on the priest at Mass.

My dream, therefore, has always been to build a beautiful back altar and put it where the priests and deacons sit and move Jesus to the most prominent place in his house, this temple. That is, I want to say liturgically and architecturally, “Daddy’s home”! And put the priests and deacons over to the side, and recognize that I am essentially a step-dad, and one day the super-cool, real dad is going to come home. If Mark Wahlberg walks into IC I want him to see Jesus is front and center and maybe I’ll get a selfie with him!

My friends, do you mind if I bring this a little closer to home and show how it applies not only to this home we’re sitting in now but to your house you’ll go home to after Mass? You see, for the ancient Jews the temple was a miniature replica of the cosmos, and the cosmos was in turn a macro-temple. Think of how a dollhouse is a miniature version of a real house, but just with super small tables, chairs, beds, sinks, bathrooms, etc. The temple therefore is just the dollhouse, while the entire cosmos is the real house.

So, in that sense, this whole world we live in, including your house, is part of the macro-temple, that is, the whole universe is God’s house. And guess what, chicken butt? One day, Daddy’s coming home. And that means as stewards of creation we are in the position of Will Farrell and merely step-dads on earth, until the really super-cool Dad returns. By the way, this is exactly what happens in every Baptism. Your children are adopted into God’s family, and that means they really belong to God, who is their Daddy, Abba, Father. In other words, you become spiritual step-parents to your own children.

And just like in this micro-cosmos of Immaculate Conception church, Jesus needs to occupy the most prominent place, so in your home and in your heart, Jesus should occupy the most prominent place. In my parents’ house, they always erect a small altar to Jesus, with the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the middle surrounded by candles. It’s clear who is the head of my parents’ home: Jesus. That is, no matter how cool you think you are or how fancy a car you drive, or how big your muscles are, Jesus will be far cooler than that. And one day, Daddy’s coming home. You know, you guys really need to watch more movies.

Praised be Jesus Christ!