The ancient Jewish temple, of which now only the foundations remain, was once the center of Jewish religion. It was an expression of fidelity to God that was both sacred and orderly. Sacred order is obtained when the holy things are kept in the holy place, apart from all that is profane. That is why the Jewish temple was ritually purified, and why only the priests could enter its inner sanctum, where the ark of the covenant was kept. That is why, when the temple ceased to function as it should, the prophets would call the people to action. The prophet Joel, for example, called out: “Gird yourselves and weep, O priests! Wail, O ministers of the altar… The house of your God is deprived of offering and libation” (Joel 1:13).
What things are special to you? Which people are dear to you? What memories, what ideas, what images are most sacred to you? There you have your own, personal, subjective ordering of the sacred. There is also an objective order, which is the hierarchy of things sacred to God, himself. If you can adjust your subjective order of the sacred to match up with God’s objective order, then you succeed in purifying your inner temple from all that is profane and then you keep the holy things in the holy place. This is what the saints did, and with God’s help, we can do it, too. While we strive to that end, to reach that point, then, let us not be deaf to the prophet’s call to gird ourselves, to weep and to wail because the house of our God is deprived of offering and libation.