Exile and return

Blessed be God who lives for ever! This is the response to the Canticle today (Tb 13). Blessed be God who lives forever! It is a response to Christ's miraculous work of bringing Israel out of exile in Babylon back to the promised land. And what an unexpected turn of events! A new king, Cyrus, makes a sudden proclamation that the Jews can return home to build their temple, and even provides funds to do so (cf. Ezr 9:5-9). It would seem nothing less than a miracle to the faithful remnant in Babylon.

A model of the Herodian Temple.

Do we need a miracle in our lives? Are we in a spiritual exile, distant from God and yearning for communion? We can renew our trust in the living God, the God who lives forever, by going to him in the Blessed Sacrament. Here is the greatest miracle Jesus wrought--God's eternal presence among us.

The Heavenly Jerusalem, with the Lamb of God at the center:
here is Christ, who gives himself to us in the Eucharist

Here  God has the power to deliver us from our exile and return us to the promised land to build another temple, the eschatological temple of which the Jerusalem temple was a mere shadow. To be with Christ is already a foretaste of heaven; it is already to be in the eternal promised land, to be in the Heavenly Jerusalem (cf. Hebr 11:10). And in his presence of Christ in the Eucharist we enter into the Christic temple, the temple of his body. Let us become living stones (1 Pet 2:5) of that spiritual temple of which Christ is the cornerstone (Eph 2:20). Let us live in that spiritual house as priests of the New Covenant, offering continual sacrifice. Smiling at that person who bothers you. Writing a note to someone who needs encouraging. Offering our work to God. In all these ways we build up the spiritual temple that is the Mystical Body of Christ.