NOTES for Hag 2:1-23

Those who remember the former temple find it hard to accept the new one: they would like to see its restoration as a full return to their former life. But the Lord does not let us return to the old place or stand still in the new one. He leads us forward, especially since not everything in the world that has passed away was truly good. People, however, need an outward effect, and therefore they too easily fall into superficial judgments, into aestheticizing and imitating antiquity. But the most important thing, as we know, cannot be seen with the eyes: the visible is only one way of touching the invisible, not a substitute for it. More important than the restoration of architectural forms is that in the new temple the Lord is still present, preserving the covenant concluded between Him and the people.

His presence will be manifested in this temple in a way that would have been hard for Haggai's contemporaries, and perhaps even for the prophet himself, to imagine. Not only in the Holy of Holies, not only during prayers and sacrifices, but also as an unrecognized Man conversing with worshipers and driving out merchants, He will reveal Himself here.

And again we hear His words, with which He constantly addresses people: "Do not be afraid!" Many times throughout all Scripture we see these words, a sure sign of His presence beside people. In this world, where it is easier to defile a holy thing than to sanctify anything, since tearing down is not building, no one promised us an absence of difficulties. But with God much is possible, even the impossible: from clearing away everyday cares to uprooting the rule of pagan empires.

What is this history that is exposed in the books of the Old Testament? Traditionally it is used to be called the Holy history of the Old Testament; but what is held behind this definition? The history of people? Yes, of course: it is about the history of the Jewish people. The history of a certain concrete religion or religions? Certainly: in the books of the Old Testament it is about the history of yahvism, and then - about the origin of its interior and the subsequent becoming of the Judaism. And about concrete communities, yahvistes and Jewish, taking during various historic periods diverse forms, in order to give in the captivity period beginning to the Synagogue with all the diverse demonstrations of its religious life. And all the same the holy history is not the history of the people and nor the history of the religion, but the history of Revelation. It is not the history of the life of people, and although the lives of religious, and even not the history of the seekers of God: because the seeking of God is a human affair, although spiritual and highest of all possibilities.

And the holy history is a history of how God approached the people and man, how He overcame the abyss separating man from Him. And in the center of this process is God's union-covenant with His people and His presence in the holy meeting, and which becomes holy thanks to Him. The covenant with God and the breath of God, making of the Jewish people the people of God in the full sense of this term, people-community.

It could not be otherwise: because the spirit, the breath of God and the union-covenant with Him are two sides of the same reality, the reality of the process, in result of which the crowd which went out of Egypt becomes the people-community. Truly, for that they had to go through the captivity (the sermon of Haggai is related to the time after captivity). Through the captivity, during which formed, in fact, the new nation, stood out the very remnant, about which spoke the prophets of before captivity. The remnant who learnt to listen to God and to feel His breath.

This habit that appeared during the captivity helped the Jewish community of Babylon to survive the captivity, in spite of the absence of the Temple and the impossibility of sacrifice. And still it, this habit, had to be useful for the people after, when the Kingdom will enter the world. Indeed, it [the Kingdom] is entirely penetrated by the breath of God, full of power and love. Until the captivity it was known only by some people possessing the prophetic gift; after the captivity on this knowledge was built all the life of the people-community; after the Pentecost - the Kingdom that manifested to the world its plenitude. Such is the history of the God Who entered the world. The holy history.