Wednesday, January 28, 2026
Father Richard identifies some of the paradoxes we encounter when reading the Bible:
After reading and studying Scripture for decades, my assumption is that the biblical text mirrors the nature of human consciousness. It includes within itself passages that develop certain great themes and universal patterns, as well as passages that fight and resist those very advances. We might even call it faith and unfaith—both are locked into the text.
The journey into the mystery of God is necessarily a journey into the unfamiliar. While much of the Bible is merely a repetition of familiar terrain, where nothing new is asked of history or nothing new given to the soul, there are also those frequent breakthroughs, which we would rightly call “revelations” from the Spirit (because we would never come to them by our own small minds).
Once we observe the trajectory, we are always ready to be surprised and graced by the Unfamiliar, which is why it is called “faith” to begin with. It might at first feel scary, new, or even exciting, but if we stay with the unfolding texts, we will have the courage to know them also as our own deepest hopes or intuitions. Such is the dance between outer authority and inner authority, the great Tradition and inner experience. This is the balance we seek.
I believe the prime ideas of Scripture are already revealed in capsulated form at the beginning in the Hebrew Scriptures. From that early statement of the theme, the whole middle part of the Bible is something akin to character or theme development. By the end, especially in the Risen Christ of the Gospels and in Paul’s theology of the Risen Christ, we have the crescendo, the full revelation of One we can trust to be a nonviolent and thoroughly gracious God, who is inviting us into loving union.
It takes all the Bible—and sometimes all our lives—to get beyond the punitiveness and pettiness that we project onto God and that we harbor within ourselves. We have to keep connecting the dots of God’s wisdom and grace. Remember, how we get there determines where we will arrive. The process itself is important and gives authority to the outcome. The Bible’s “three-steps-forward, two-steps-back” texts give us a deeper urgency to go forward and a deeper understanding when we get there.
I love the clear continuities between the two Testaments and clearly see Jesus as a Jewish man and rabbi, who brilliantly gave us a wonderful lens by which to love the Jewish tradition and keep moving forward with it in an inclusive way (which became its child, Christianity).
The ecumenical character and future of Christianity become rather obvious when understood in this way. We cannot avoid one another any longer, and we do so only at our own loss (1 Corinthians 12:12–30), and the loss of the gospel.
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| JAN 28, 2026 Jesus’ Death Exposed the Failure of the Second Temple |
 The first temple in Jerusalem was built by King Solomon. When it was finished, God’s presence filled the temple and his glory dwelt in the innermost chamber, the Holy of Holies (see 1 Kings 8:10-11). However, after generations of injustice, idolatry, and ignoring the warnings offered by the Lord’s prophets, God’s presence left the temple as a sign that the people had broken their covenant with him. Shortly after, the temple was destroyed by the Babylonian invaders in 586 BC, and the people were carried into exile.When they returned to Jerusalem 70 years later, the people began rebuilding after the destruction. This included erecting a new temple. Despite the resumption of worship and sacrifices, there is no record of God’s presence ever returning to the second temple. Over the following centuries, the second temple was expanded, its furnishings upgraded, and its decor enhanced, yet there was no sign that God’s glory filled the Holy of Holies. Nonetheless, the temple became the centerpiece of Jewish identity, religion, and hope for political liberation. And those who served in the temple—the priests and religious leaders—used their status to exalt themselves and maintain control over the people.The importance of the second temple, but the absence of God’s presence within it, is a tension we see throughout the gospels. On the one hand, Jesus repeatedly criticized the religious leaders for abusing his “Father’s house,” but on the other hand, Jesus also dismissed the temple as irrelevant. Instead, he identified himself as the real temple and the true presence of God on earth. In fact, it was Jesus’ criticism of the temple and his exaltation of himself as greater than the temple which ultimately led the religious leaders to seek his arrest and execution. By challenging the temple, Jesus undermined the foundation on which the religious leaders based their authority.In this reading of the gospels, Jesus’ judgment of the temple and its leaders reaches its climax when he dies on the cross. Matthew, Mark, and Luke each recorded that “At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom,” exposing the inner chamber, the Holy of Holies, where God’s presence was supposed to dwell. Of course, God’s glory was not there. It never was. The torn curtain revealed that the second temple, and all of the men who drew their power from it, were frauds. They said they arrested and executed Jesus to defend the temple, the house of the Lord. In truth, they had destroyed the actual temple and murdered the Lord to protect their fragile religious authority. In other words, they were guilty of the very thing they had accused Jesus of.The scene is reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz, when Toto pulls back the curtain to reveal the truth. The giant, frightening wizard whose presence was surrounded by smoke and fire, turned out to be a little man talking into a microphone and pulling levers. It was all a charade. Likewise, the second temple and the religious hierarchy it produced were built on an illusion. God’s presence was not there. No smoke or holy fire filled the Most Holy Place behind the curtain, because God’s true glory was to be found somewhere else—on the cross .DAILY SCRIPTURE LUKE 23:44-49 2 CHRONICLES 7:1-3 WEEKLY PRAYER. from Charles Kingsley (1819 – 1875) O God, grant that looking upon the face of the Lord, as into a glass, we may be changed into his likeness, from glory to glory. Take out of us all pride and vanity, boasting and forwardness; and give us the true courage which shows itself by gentleness; the true wisdom which shows itself by simplicity; and the true power which shows itself by modesty. Amen. |
