The Temple
Scriptures to Read: - Building and dedication of Temple built by King Solomon: 1 Kings 6:1-38; 1 Kings 8:1-30; - Foundation of Second Temple: Ezra 3:10-13 - Jesus visiting the Temple: Lk 2:41-52; Mt 21:12-16, 21:23 - 24:2; Mk 11:15-17; Lk 19:45-46; Jn 2:13-17
Model of Second Temple and the Temple Mount, as rebuilt by King Herod the Great
The Temple in Jerusalem was the center of Israel’s worship; here God’s presence dwelt with his people. Solomon spent seven years building the first Temple and during its dedication the glory of the Lord filled the sanctuary. This magnificent Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. After the Exile, Zerubbabel helped oversee the laying of the foundation of the Second Temple. Those who had seen the glory of Solomon’s Temple wept at the meagerness of the new foundation. Later King Herod the Great, although not of the Davidic line, fancied himself a “new Solomon,” and attempted to legitimize his kingship by using his immense wealth to enlarge the Temple mount and rebuild the Second Temple on a grander scale during his reign.
The Temple was built over the site where Abraham offered Isaac (2 Chronicles 3:1; Genesis 22). The rock upon which this happened is what is found inside the Muslim mosque known as the Dome of the Rock, which sits on the Temple Mount today, where the First and Second Temples once stood.
St. Luke records that Joseph and Mary went each year to the Temple in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and recounts one particular year when Jesus was twelve years old and Mary and Joseph found Jesus in the Temple sitting among the teachers. The gospels recount numerous times that Jesus and his disciples traveled to the Temple in Jerusalem for the feasts as commanded in the Torah. It was on the Temple Mount that Jesus overturned the money-changers tables, angered that the people made the Temple a den of thieves when it was intended to be a house of prayer.
Some thoughts for your reflection and lectio on these passages and events of Scripture: § Jesus teaches that it is his body, which he prophesied would be destroyed and raised up on the third day, that is the true Temple. As a result of our Baptism, St. Paul applies this to each of us, teaching “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor 6:19-20). The price of my salvation: the suffering and death of the divine Son of God, endured out of love for me. How might I live, what deeds might I perform, what words might I say to another, how might I dress, etc., today so as to glorify God in my body? Mount of Olives
Scriptures to Read – Lk 19:28-40, 21:37; Mt 21:1-11
Panoramic view of the Temple Mount and the Old City from the Mount of Olives (the golden Dome of the Rock sits where the Temple would have stood) This is the type of view that Jesus would have had when he stopped and wept over Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
On Palm Sunday Jesus approached Jerusalem from the East, descending the Mount of Olives on “a colt, the foal of an ass.” The people anticipated that Jesus, as the new King and long-awaited Son of David, would enter Jerusalem and take it back from the Roman oppressors, reestablishing the Davidic rule over the city. Thus they greeted Jesus with shouts of “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes …”
Dominus Flevit Chapel But the judgment Jesus makes is not first upon the Romans, but on God’s own people and their infidelity. On the Mount of Olives, overlooking Jerusalem, Jesus wept as he drew near the city, saying “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes. … because you did not know the time of your visitation” (Lk 19:41-42,44). Remembering Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem, part way down the Mount of Olives is a small chapel, Dominus Flevit, with its dome shaped to recall the tears Jesus wept. In front of Dominus Flevit is a thorn bush/tree, the thorns of which can measure several inches in length. It is this type of Thorns from tree near Dominus Flevit Chapel bush that might have been used to make the crown of thorns woven around Jesus’ sacred head.
Some thoughts for your reflection and lectio on these passages and events of Scripture: § We repeat the joyous shout of the crowds at every liturgy when we sing “Holy, Holy, Holy …” Just as he came to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, Jesus comes to us anew in every Eucharist. How can I better prepare my heart to receive him.