"Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were buying and selling there." Matthew 21:12

"We read in the Gospel how Holy Week began with Jesus entering the temple and driving out all those who bought and sold. He rebuked the vendors of doves; 'Get these things out of here!' He was so crystal clear in his command that it was as if he said, 'I have a right to this temple and I alone will be in control of it.'

What does this have to say to us? The temple God wants to be master of is the human soul, which he created and fashioned just like himself. We read that God said, 'Let us make man in our own image.' And he did it. He made each soul so much like himself that nothing else in heaven or on earth resembles him so much. That is why God wants the temple to be pure, so pure that nothing should dwell there except he himself...

But who, exactly, are the people who buy and sell? Are they not precisely the good people? See! They strive to be good people who do their good deeds to the glory of God, such as fasting, watching, praying and the like--all of which are good--and yet do these things so that God will give them something in exchange...

Lest we forget, we do what we do only by the help of God, and so God is never obligated to us. God gives us nothing and does nothing except out of his own free will. What we are we are because of God, and what we have we receive from God and not by our own contriving....

Jesus went into the temple and drove out those that bought and sold. His message was bold: 'Take this all away!' But observe that when all was cleared, there was nobody left but Jesus. And when he is alone he is able to speak in the temple of the soul."

Meister Eckhart (ca. 1260-1327)