After my presbyterate ordination this summer, I went back to my home town in Indonesia to celebrate a mass of thanksgiving in the parish where I was baptized. My mass of thanksgiving took place in a brand-new church which was just completed a few months ago. It took almost ten years for the people in my home town to finish the Church because of lack of funding. It was only due to the generosity of a benefactor from a neighboring province that people were able to complete the Church’s construction. This particular benefactor initially had a business in the neighboring town. He often passed the construction site of the Church and he noticed that the Church building was never finished after so many years. He finally decided to take the initiative by approaching the parishioners so to help to complete the Church project.
In the first reading today, we hear how the Israelite people celebrate the construction of the Second Temple. Interestingly, this temple was commissioned and paid for by the Persian King Darius instead of the Jewish people. King Darius is a non-believer and a Gentile. God is working mysteriously through this foreign King to bring new hope to the Israelites. Indeed, the construction of the Second Temple brought a new hope to the Israelite. Under the leadership of Ezra, they began the refortification of the walls of Jerusalem and the establishment of the Knesset as the religious and judicial body of the Jewish people that marked the beginning of the Second Temple period.
In your prayer today, recall a moment of joy and relief at an unexpected turning point in your life. Imagine a moment or a scenario under which different people or you yourself respond to a chance to rebuild something together: religious monks and nuns lives together, families live together. Authentic communities seek whatever that they need to be rebuild. Can you ask for God’s guiding presence for the unexpected aspects of your life that need rebuilding? Speak to God whatever you have in mind in your prayers.