RBWords

     The past few days have featured as the first scripture the writings of the "post-exilic" prophets.  These figures were important in the process of re-establishing the Jewish nation after the Jews were released from their exile in Babylon by a Persian ruler.  The story of the resettlement is a complicated one dominated by the question of rebuilding the temple which had been destroyed.  Solomon had nearly bankrupted the people in building the original, which King David had begun.  Nevertheless, the memory of that first temple and the descriptions in living memory and in the Torah served as guides.  No doubt the support by the Persian king, Darius, made a big difference.  The prophet, Haggai, quoted above, was a leading figure in promoting the rebuilding of the temple.  As with all large undertakings, the expense and politics created controversy and the temple was a controversial reality right up to the day the Romans destroyed it in 70 A.D.!   Its memory remains powerful, as anyone (myself included) can testify who has visited the "wailing wall" in Jerusalem.

     Faith needs symbols.  St. Peter's Basilica in Rome stands as a symbol to Catholics around the world of the unity of faith.  The temple in Jerusalem serves much the same function for Jews.  It is not likely that if the temple were rebuilt that the temple priesthood or animal sacrifice would be restored, any more than if one of Rome's earthquakes destroyed St. Peter's that the Catholic world would be able to restore St. Peter's in exactly the same way.  But the power of a symbolic building to stand for an entire faith or nation is profound.  Imagine how one of us in the USA would have felt if the recent earthquake in Washington, DC, had succeeded in toppling the Washington Monument or the dome of the capitol building?

     One of the charges brought against Jesus was that he planned to destroy the temple.  The Romans did that physically.  Jesus replaced the temple with his own body.  After the destruction of the temple, the surviving Jewish leaders realized that any gathering of Jews to meditate on Torah created a kind of temple - the synagogue.  Yet, the powerful memory of the temple lives on as a part of our own Christian roots as well.  Reading the story of its restoration in the past can remind us of the importance of our own "temples."   AMEN