Friday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
(Haggai 2:1-9; Luke 9:18-22)
“Nine-eleven” was such an outrageous assault on America because
it not only claimed thousands of lives but also attempted to destroy the nation’s
dominant symbols. Its perpetrators were
able to bring down the World Trade Center, a leading sign of commerce, and to
damage the Pentagon, the hands-down symbol of military power. The terrorists who hijacked the fourth
airliner may well have been targeting the White House or the Capitol, the chief
centers of American governance, before they were thwarted. Today’s first reading focuses on a similar potent
national symbol, not of America, of course, but of Israel.
The Temple became the center of Jewish worship. Its original construction by King Solomon was
laden with riches. Its reconstruction
after the Exile – the focus of the reading today – was necessarily humbler
given the hardship of the people during those times. Its final version, however, engineered by
King Herod the Great, contained the largest area dedicated to sacred worship in
ancient times. Jerusalemites lived off
the revenue received from pilgrims visiting the Temple’s confines.
The Roman army destroyed Herod’s Temple in 70 A.D., an event
which ended Israel’s legacy of Temple worship.
The Gospel, however, sees the Temple
functionally destroyed with the crucifixion of Jesus and then rebuilt in three
days with his resurrection. The new
Temple, which is not so much a physical structure but a spiritual one, fulfills
Haggai’s vision. God has brought peace
to the world in the Body of Christ, which is the Church. Its members from every nation on earth give
glory to God by living justly and lovingly.
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