20250925 REBUILDING OUR LIVES BY REBUILDING THE TEMPLE OF GOD
25 September 2025, Thursday, 25th Week in Ordinary Time
irst reading | Haggai 1:1-8 |
'Rebuild the House'
In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord was addressed through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, high commissioner of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as follows, ‘The Lord of Hosts says this, “This people says: The time has not yet come to rebuild the Temple of the Lord. (And the word of the Lord was addressed through the prophet Haggai, as follows:) Is this a time for you to live in your panelled houses, when this House lies in ruins? So now, the Lord of Hosts says this: Reflect carefully how things have gone for you. You have sown much and harvested little; you eat but never have enough, drink but never have your fill, put on clothes but do not feel warm. The wage earner gets his wages only to put them in a purse riddled with holes. So go to the hill country, fetch wood, and rebuild the House: I shall then take pleasure in it, and be glorified there, says the Lord.”’
Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 149:1-6,9 |
The Lord takes delight in his people.
or
Alleluia!
Sing a new song to the Lord,
his praise in the assembly of the faithful.
Let Israel rejoice in its Maker,
let Zion’s sons exult in their king.
The Lord takes delight in his people.
or
Alleluia!
Let them praise his name with dancing
and make music with timbrel and harp.
For the Lord takes delight in his people.
He crowns the poor with salvation.
The Lord takes delight in his people.
or
Alleluia!
Let the faithful rejoice in their glory,
shout for joy and take their rest.
Let the praise of God be on their lips:
this honour is for all his faithful.
The Lord takes delight in his people.
or
Alleluia!
Gospel Acclamation | Ps118:18 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Open my eyes, O Lord, that I may consider
the wonders of your law.
Alleluia!
Or: | Jn14:6 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, says the Lord;
No one can come to the Father except through me.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 9:7-9 |
'John? I beheaded him; so who is this?'
Herod the tetrarch had heard about all that was being done by Jesus; and he was puzzled, because some people were saying that John had risen from the dead, others that Elijah had reappeared, still others that one of the ancient prophets had come back to life. But Herod said, ‘John? I beheaded him. So who is this I hear such reports about?’ And he was anxious to see Jesus.
REBUILDING OUR LIVES BY REBUILDING THE TEMPLE OF GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [HAGGAI 1:1-8; PS 149:1-6,9; LK 9:7-9]
The Israelites had just returned from exile in Babylon. The land and the temple were in ruins, as were their houses. Although their return was greeted with joy and excitement, the fervour quickly faded when they realized how much work needed to be done. Naturally, they focused first on repairing their own homes and starting their farms. It was a matter of survival and rebuilding their lives. For those who had been successful in business or careers in Babylon, returning home meant starting over. This explains why many were reluctant to leave Babylon, especially those born there, whose cultural and emotional ties to their homeland were weak.
For this reason, the prophet Haggai called the people to rebuild the Temple of the Lord. As a messenger of the covenant, he summoned them back to faithfulness to the covenant by urging them to take the first step of repentance. He went straight to the point, saying: “The Lord of hosts says this, ‘This people say: The time has not yet come to rebuild the Temple of the Lord.'” Their lukewarm and indifferent response showed that the people were apathetic and defeatist in answering the call to return to God. They accepted spiritual dryness as normal. They were more concerned with their personal comfort and livelihood, than with their spiritual life. Hence, God’s call was urgent, for they had allowed external pressures and low morale to make them abandon rebuilding the Temple and restoring their loyalty to Him.
Indeed, this is true even for our Catholics today. Many of us live in nice houses and bungalows. We enjoy comfortable lives, with houses worth millions, yet we often struggle to raise funds to build a church for a community of 8,000 that may cost $45 million. Many begrudge spending on making the Church not only beautiful and fitting for worship but also functional as a space for formation and community-building. Today, we need many meeting rooms and classrooms to meet the growing needs of our young and even elderly people, and ministry members because building basic communities is the key to strengthening our faithful.
While it is understandable that every family must provide for its needs first, we must not think that the needs of the Church are secondary. Haggai warned the rulers and the people of the futility of material pursuits: “Reflect carefully how things have gone for you. You have sown much and harvested little; you eat but never have enough, drink but never have your fill, put on clothes but do not feel warm. The wage earner gets his wages only to put them in a purse riddled with holes.” Those who put their worldly needs before God will find themselves lacking meaning and purpose in life. Some, because of sin, end up not only spiritually dry but also materially poor. It is the fruit of misplaced priorities.
For this reason, the prophet Haggai urged the people to “go to the hill country, fetch wood, and rebuild the House: I shall then take pleasure in it, and be glorified there, says the Lord.” Indeed, they had to recognise their true priority – serving and loving God above all things. Worshipping God is more than simply building a temple; it is about building a relationship with Him. In the medieval ages, Catholics sacrificed their lives, time, and resources to build churches for worship, putting God above everything else. The irony is that while those churches were magnificent and no home could rival them, today some of our houses are grander and more beautiful than our churches.
The call to rebuild the Temple of God is a call to put God at the centre of our lives. In the Middle Ages, every village had a church at its centre. Life revolved around God and worship. Today, the church is no longer central to people’s lives. At most, many come to church once a week for Sunday Mass, if at all. With secularization, God is often excluded from public life. If we talk about God, it is only within the confines of the church; even in our Catholic schools and at home, His presence is minimal. While the Church is more than a building, the way we treat it reflects the place God holds in our hearts.
This is also visibly true when I bless houses. Not many so-called Catholic homes have an altar in their big house. We would proudly display graduation photos and those taken with significant persons in society, expensive art, or trophies, but we have no place for the crucifix, or images of our Lord Jesus Christ, or the Blessed Virgin Mary. If there is one, it is often relegated to some insignificant corner of the house where no one would pay any attention to – like in the bedroom. Some may argue that God dwells in the heart, not at an altar, but what we display in our homes reflects our priorities. As Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mt 6:21).
Indeed, when God is no longer the centre of our lives, it means we, like the Israelites, have lost faith in His covenant. The exile did not destroy that covenantal relationship God had made with His people. However, simply returning from Babylon could not restore it unless there was repentance and a renewed commitment to make God the centre of their lives. The fact that they were lackadaisical in rebuilding the Temple of God, while being preoccupied with their own interests, reflected their lack of desire to encounter God. Without inviting God to return to His Temple, both the place and the hearts of the people would remain unsanctified, and His blessing would not come. Through the prophet Haggai, God’s reminds us that He desires to share His graces and blessings with us, but to enjoy them, we must first prepare a place for Him in our hearts, our homes, and in our churches.
In the Gospel, we hear of Herod’s guilty conscience for killing John the Baptist. He was haunted by the guilt of giving in to Herodias’ demand to have John the Baptist, a true prophet of God, beheaded because John sought to straighten the lives of King Herod and Herodias. John spoke against them publicly, and as a consequence, Herodias wanted to silence him once and for all, even though King Herod loved to listen to him and his counsel. Herod might not have been able to do the right thing, but at least he sought to keep his heart sensitive to what was right and wrong by listening to John’s preaching. Deep in his heart, he was contrite, and instead of living in the past and allowing his sin to oppress him, he wished he could make amends with John the Baptist if only he could see him. Hence, “he was anxious to see Jesus.”
But curiosity alone cannot lead us to Jesus. It might be the beginning of an adventure, or it might invite us to reflect, but Jesus cannot be discovered through second-hand reports and rumours. Herod needed to come to faith in Jesus with more than just curiosity. He needed to decide for himself, unlike the last time when he left the decision to Herodias, which resulted in the death of an innocent and beloved prophet.
So too for us: if we want to rebuild our lives from the ruins of our past mistakes, we must turn to the Lord and seek His divine assistance by listening to His Word through the prophets, teachers, and His priests. We must put God as the centre of our lives by giving Him the central place in our hearts. Herod, when he heard about John the Baptist, realised that he still had the chance to rebuild his life. Of course, the “John the Baptist” he thought had risen from the dead was none other than Jesus. It is to our Lord that we must come, seeking His grace to rebuild the temple of our lives. As St Paul said, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.” (1 Cor 6:19f)
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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