"6 Euro please."

On Saturday, Mary and I went to visit Christ Church Anglican Cathedral

in Dublin. As Mary walked through the doors and ventured in a few

steps, she met an attendant who asked for 6 Euro to be admitted. No 6

Euro, no Cathedral. On Sunday, there is no price for admittance as

long as you are attending a service. Although I would have preferred

to attend Sunday Eucharist at a regular neighborhood parish, I went to

the Cathedral, partly because I knew where it was.

Today's Gospel reading rang loudly in my ears this morning:

Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and

buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the

money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them,

‘It is written,

“My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you are making it a

den of robbers.’

The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them.

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that

he did, and heard* the children crying out in the temple, ‘Hosanna to

the Son of David’, they became angry and said to him, ‘Do you hear

what these are saying?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Yes; have you never read,

“Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared

praise for yourself”?’ (Mt. 21:12-16).

On Sunday, I read the back of the service bulletin. It explained why

they charge 6 Euro to visit. These are hard economic times. The

budget to run the Cathedral is 1,200,000 Euro (about $1,500,000).

They have to cut back on their social service programs for the poor

and needy. The only way that they have to try to keep those programs

going is to charge tourists who visit the Cathedral. Even so, they

still have a deficit of 200,000 Euro this year.

Were they like the money changers in today's Gospel reading. I don't

think so. The tourists that come to visit by and large are not there

to pray but to see the glory of years past. The Cathedral is still

trying to do the work of building the Kingdom of God with fewer funds

and with fewer people.

Let us pray: Gracious God, even when times are hard, and especially

when times are hard, you call us to be Christ's hands and feet ,

helping those who are hurting among us. Help those who work with the

poor at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin. Give them the grace of

Your Holy Spirit to continue when discouraged. Amen.

Your servant in Christ,

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550