Thursday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
What makes people successful? Sociologists spend years examining this question. The common characteristic was not hard work, nor practical or people skills. The one factor that transcends all the rest was putting first things first. The successful person has the habit of doing the things those who lag behind don't like to do. They don't like doing them either, necessarily. But their distaste is overshadowed by their determination.
The Book of the Prophet Haggai, the second shortest in the Hebrew scriptures, teaches the same: first things first. The Judahites returning from Babylonian captivity had drifted away, living with misplaced priorities. Haggai’s prophetic ministry was to shake up God's people to get their priorities in line.
The Babylonian armies had leveled Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple 70 years earlier. When the Judahites (Jews) returned to the Holy City they faced the daunting task of rebuilding. The first returnees made preliminary attempts to clear the debris and lay the foundation for a second temple.
Slowly Jerusalem came to life again. Dwellings were built, commerce restored, the cycle of planting and harvesting renewed. The Judahites (Jews), however, got used to life without the Temple. The foundations were overgrown, standing as a stark reminder of the glory that once was and the failure to take care of God's house. “Take-no-prisoners” Haggai appeared on the scene with a singular message: the Temple must have absolute priority — first things first.
The Temple must be the center again: the heart and soul of everything for God’s people, the unique place on earth where God dwelled. For the Temple to lie in ruins was to neglect their covenant God who saved them and brought them back. Misplaced priorities? An understatement!
Like nearly all the prophets (including John the Baptist & Jesus of Nazareth), Haggai's message was blunt, pulling no punches — like a tough foreman, bellowing orders on a construction site (My father was a foreman at Republic Steel in Youngstown. I know what foremen sound like). Foreman Haggai’s prophetic and challenging question is clear: are we putting first things first?
Responding to the voice of the prophet, what needs to be put “first” in your life?
—Timothy J. Cronin
Image from Bible Project