May 26, Temples: a Sunday Scriptures blog

Not long ago we watched in horror as the great cathedral of Notre Dame burned, shaking the very identity of the French people. The destruction of the temple in Jerusalem by Rome in 70 C.E. was a huge shock for Jews and also for the Jewish converts to Christ. Our second reading today from Revelation reassures them: “I saw no temple in the city for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb.” In our Gospel, the living embodiment or temple of God, God embodied in Jesus of Nazareth, was about to be taken away from the disciples. Jesus reassures them that “the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” These may be reassuring Scriptures also for us today. There are ways that our Church, our holy Temple, also has been destroyed. Secularism has eroded the faith of many, and so we find ourselves worshiping without family members and others who make up the huge number of today’s “nones.” Many of us also struggle to stay with a church which may be too liberal or too conservative for us now, and which certainly has scandalized us through things like the sex abuse scandal. Today as we pray for our man-made Temple where God indeed lives, we welcome the message that the God we seek and worship has another Temple, a much bigger house, the house of the Lord God Almighty, the Lamb, and the Spirit.

– Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia

One Comment:

  1. Always love to see your words. Thank you.

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