Monday, June 28, 2021
The Altar of Our Lives – Part II
In John’s Gospel yesterday, we saw Jesus constructing the altar of his life, laying the foundation, bringing the supports and lintel from the workshop, designing and carving the decorations, taking care to follow the guidelines laid out by the father. From a Noontime several years ago we contemplated the construction of our New Altar in the New Jerusalem in Ezekiel 43.
We are the temple. We carry this altar about with us everywhere we go. Christ arrives. Christ brings with him the New Law of The Beatitudes – which fulfills and supersedes the Old Mosaic law – and Christ offers a sacrifice of himself on this altar which we have prepared.
Summer brings us to our familiar schedule in a new way and we do well to take time to examine the construction of our altar. How many cubits does it measure? Is it tiny and mean, big and overwhelming, appropriate and exact to the measurements God has suggested for us? What about the threshold, the hearth, the ledge and the rim? Have we prepared the decorations? Have we brought along the salt? Have we tried to follow God’s prescription for us? Have we invented an altar of our own? Have we decided what we want to offer or do we bring what God asks of us?
Summer is a time to consider the altar we have made for our God. What is it like? Whom does it please? What is it for? Do we construct it and then stand back and wait? Or do we eagerly step forward with the gift of self to offer our failures and successes back to the one who sent us forth?
Summer is a time to consider . . .
When we read about the Temple altar which we see recreated digitally, what will we say about the work we bring forward to God? What will our construction look like? And will this be a place upon which we wish to burn the holocaust of our lives?
Summer is a time to consider . . .
Adapted from a reflection written on March 27, 2009.
For more on Solomon’s Temple, click on the image above or go to: https://dwellingintheword.wordpress.com/2011/06/page/2/
The Noontimes 