20 November 2026 · Latin Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malankara Rite · Syro-Malabar Rite · മലയാളം
“It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.” Luke 19:46
John is told to take the little scroll and eat it: “it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter.” Like Ezekiel before him, the prophet must first digest God's word before he can speak it. The word is sweet because it is God's; it is bitter because it carries judgement and suffering. Whoever proclaims it must first let it enter his own life.
Jesus enters the Temple and drives out the sellers, quoting Isaiah and Jeremiah: “My house shall be a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of robbers.” Then he teaches there daily, and the leaders cannot act against him, “for all the people were spellbound by what they heard”. The cleansed Temple becomes a school of the Word. Our churches and our hearts are meant to be the same: houses of prayer where God's word is heard and loved.
Theme: “Sweet as honey.”
Eat God's word, delight in it, and keep God's house a house of prayer.
“He said to me, Mortal, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it. Then I ate it; and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey.” Ezekiel 3:3
“So I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter.” Revelation 10:10
Apply: Read today's Gospel three times slowly.
“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” Psalm 119:103
“But they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.” Luke 19:48
Apply: Memorise one verse this week.
“Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight? You know, I too am watching, says the LORD.” Jeremiah 7:11
“It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.” Luke 19:46
Apply: Set up a prayer corner at home.
Eat the word, and it will make you a house of prayer.
Let Jesus teach daily in your temple.
Take-home resolution: Read the Sunday Gospel at home every Saturday evening.
Dear friends, John is told to take the little scroll from the angel's hand and eat it. It was sweet as honey in his mouth, but when he had eaten it his stomach was made bitter (Revelation 10:9–10). Like Ezekiel before him, the prophet must first digest God's word before he can speak it.
The word is sweet because it is God's: it consoles, it heals, it gives hope. It is also bitter, because it calls us to conversion and carries the cost of the Cross. Whoever proclaims it, parent, catechist or priest, must first let it enter his own life.
In the Gospel Jesus enters the Temple and drives out those who were selling, saying: my house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers. And every day he was teaching in the Temple, and all the people were spellbound by what they heard (Luke 19:46–48).
Our churches, our homes and our hearts are meant to be houses of prayer. Let us clear out what crowds God out, and let us eat his word: read the Sunday Gospel at home every Saturday evening, slowly, so that on Sunday it is already in us. Amen.
Children, God's word is sweeter than honey! Ask your parents to read the Sunday Gospel with you on Saturday night.
Lord, your words are sweeter than honey. Let me eat your word and let it change me, even when it is bitter. Cleanse my heart and make it a house of prayer. Amen.
John is told to take a little scroll and eat it: sweet in the mouth, bitter in the stomach. The word of God is a joy to receive and a cost to proclaim. In the Gospel Jesus cleanses the Temple and then teaches there every day, while the people hang on his words. Both readings are about the word: eaten, taught and heard. The psalm (Psalm 119) sings, “How sweet are your words to my taste.”
Setting.
Between the sixth and the seventh trumpets Revelation pauses. A mighty angel comes down with a little open scroll, and John's call as a prophet is renewed. The scene recalls the call of Ezekiel, who was given a scroll to eat and found it “as sweet as honey” (Ezekiel 3:3), but then went away “in bitterness” (Ezekiel 3:14). Jeremiah too could say, “Your words were found, and I ate them” (Jeremiah 15:16).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Take it, and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth.” (10:9)
The prophet must not only read the word but take it into himself. What he proclaims must first become part of him.
“You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.” (10:11)
The mission is universal. The word is not eaten for private enjoyment; it is eaten to be preached.
How the Church reads it.
The Second Vatican Council teaches that the Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures as she venerates the Body of the Lord, offering the faithful the bread of life from the one table of the word of God and of the Body of Christ (Dei Verbum 21; CCC 103). The ancient practice of lectio divina speaks of chewing the word slowly, as John eats the scroll. Revelation 10 adds a realistic note: the word that delights also wounds, because it asks us to change and to bear witness.
Setting.
Jesus enters Jerusalem and goes straight to the Temple. In its outer court, the Court of the Gentiles, animals were sold for the sacrifices and coins were changed for the Temple tax. Luke tells the cleansing very briefly and then shows Jesus teaching in the Temple every day. His action is a prophetic sign: the Temple is to be a place of prayer and of teaching, the house of his Father (2:49).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.” (19:46)
Jesus calls the Temple “my house”. He speaks as the Son in his Father's house.
“Every day he was teaching in the temple.” (19:47)
After the cleansing comes the teaching. The house of prayer is filled with the word.
“for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.” (19:48)
The leaders cannot act against him because of the people. Luke distinguishes the leaders, who plot, from the people, who listen gladly.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism explains that Jesus went up to the Temple as the privileged place of encounter with God, the dwelling of his Father and a house of prayer, and that he was angered because its outer court had become a place of commerce (CCC 583–584). St Paul teaches that Christians are now God's temple (1 Corinthians 3:16). The cleansing calls us to keep both our churches and our hearts as houses of prayer, where the word of Jesus is heard.