Sunday, June 27, 2021
The Altar of Our Lives – Part I
What does it mean to lay our sacrifices upon God’s altar? What good does takes place when we lay our lives upon the Lord’s altar when we see little or no good coming from our sacrifice? Today’s Gospel reading tells us the answers to these questions. We do not need to fully comprehend God’s plan in order to do well in this plan, we only need to follow the one who goes before us. The Christ tells us how to find ourselves in God.
In John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30 several verses stand out for us.
Jesus . . . did not wish to travel in Judea, because the Jews were trying to kill him.
“I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true”.
So they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come.
In our Noontime journey we have reflected on Ezekiel 43 and the construction of the altar in the New Temple in the New Jerusalem. Today we read about the actual altar built in the temple completed by Solomon in 960 B.C.E. The following sites show us a picture and give us an idea of the enormity of this task.
http://www.templemount.org/solomon.html
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=129&letter=T
When we think of how much time we spend in building our physical world – the clothes we wear, the house we live in, the food we buy and consume, the car we drive, the acquisitions with which we fill our lives – we see that we invest a great deal of time in what surrounds us.
When we think of the family we form, the friends we gather, the work colleagues with whom we interact – we can see the importance we place on the people in our lives and the influences we allow ourselves to experience.
When we think of how much thought we give to the formation of our prayer life, the sincerity with which we enter into our promises, the fashioning of our devotion to God, we can see how much we bring back to God, how much energy and thought we devote to the building of the altar on which we lay our true lives.
Tomorrow, taking time for a summer reflection.
Image from: http://www.templemount.org/solomon.html
Adapted from a reflection written in March 27, 2009.
The Noontimes 