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 the United States
not only because it claimed so many lives but also because it attempted to
destroy the nation’s dominant symbols.
Its perpetrators were able to bring down the World Trade
Center, the symbol of
economic power, and to damage the Pentagon, the symbol of military power. The terrorists who hijacked the fourth
airliner may well have targeted the White House or the Capitol – centers of
political power before they were thwarted
The first reading today similarly focuses on a potent national symbol.
The Temple became the center
of Jewish worship and of Jerusalem’s
economic life. 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 these
times. Its final version, engineered by
King Herod, contained the largest area dedicated to sacred worship in ancient
times. Jerusalemites lived off the
revenue received from pilgrims visiting its confines.
The Roman army destroyed Herod’s Temple
in 70 A.D., an event which ended the Jewish legacy of Temple worship. The Gospels of Mark and Matthew, however, see
the Temple functionally destroyed with the crucifixion of Jesus and then
rebuilt in three days with his resurrection.
The new Temple,
which is not a physical structure but a spiritual one, fulfills Haggai’s
prophecy. God has brought peace to earth
because in the Body of Christ -- that is, the Church -- people of every nation
give glory to God by living justly and lovingly.
