A sense of the holy 

After He purified it, our Lord left the temple because the people had become irreverent. In religion it is possible for irreverence to grow. There can be a want of the sense of holy. Holy means set apart. For example, Sunday is holy. It is set apart from the rest of the week. A church is holy; it is separate and distinct from other buildings. And therefore there is a fitting conduct in the presence of God, a conduct which was lost in those days and which is lost in ours. Just think of the way that people dress coming to Mass. They would not go to the home of a visiting duke the way they come to see the Lord God of Hosts. It is easy to blame those few who trafficked in the temple, but what of the many of us who give up the signs of their dedication, for example, the nuns who would give up the sacramental signs of their dedication? Or the priests who would give up clerical dress?