Tuesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s first reading invites us into the world of ancient Judaism. We have a passage from Ezra that describes the rebuilding of the Temple, the very place where the God of Israel dwells. It had been destroyed and the Israelites had been taken into exile. Now returned, they rebuild the Temple and offer a great sacrifice at its completion. And what a sacrifice it was: “For the dedication of this house of God, they offered one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, and four hundred lambs, together with twelve he-goats as a sin-offering for all Israel, in keeping with the number of the tribes of Israel.”
It is undoubtedly difficult to wrap our heads around what this sacrifice entailed. Some of us may raise animals but most of us don’t. Scripture invites us, however, to take a step into the minds of our ancestors and to do that, we have to try and imagine what this sacrifice meant. Perhaps one family or group of families had one or a few animals at their disposal. For the community to offer such a sacrifice, then, would have meant many folks giving up their only animals, and perhaps their only assured source of sustenance or livelihood. And yet, here we have the great procession of animals into the brand new Temple. This gives us a better sense of the joy and gratitude they felt to have their Temple back, and for the great faith they had in the Lord to provide for them in the future.
And so we search for an access-point to this story, for a way into this piece of Scripture to enliven our faith today. The witness of Israel in this moment—this moment among so many in the Old Testament where the people of God are not getting it right!—challenges us to examine our lives for the same attitude of abundant gratitude that permeates that great sacrifice.
We have much to be grateful for, first and foremost the saving sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Here we have our salvation and our call for radical self-giving. The first part seems pretty easy: Thank you, Lord, for saving me, “Miserable one that I am!” (Romans 7:24). The second part is harder to be grateful for, for it is the part that demands much of us, often even more than we can give. Yet it is only in giving of ourselves that we encounter the mystery of God, and our model is Christ on the cross. That we are invited into this mystery through Christ’s own sacrifice and his challenge for our own self-giving is indeed cause for abundant gratitude.
- Katherine Schmidt