Saturday of Week 12 Year 2

The Temple that king Solomon built was a huge and magnificent building. Huge blocks of finest stone were used to build it, and it was decorated with gold and silver ornaments. It was the pride and glory of Israel and a belief that God dwelt in their midst in that Temple. Because the temple appeared to be impressive and seemingly indestructible, the Israelites began to have a false sense of security, and became complacent in their faith, thinking that God would always be on their side, come what may. But the Israelites were soon rudely awakened and shaken to the core, when king Nebuchanezzar of Babylon conquered Jerusalem and his army laid the Temple to waste.

This was the basis on which the book of Lamentation in today's reading tried to put into words the sorrow and grief of the people, when they realised that they had been been putting their trust and dependence in the wrong place. Instead of being faithful to God and walking in His ways, they had walked in their own ways, thinking that the Temple would always assure them of God's presence. As a result, the people realised their folly too late, and ended up in exile and captivity.

We too could also fall into the same trap. We may have become complacent in our faith, especially when we have church structures and magnificent buildings around us, and we begin to put our trust in such structures and buildings, while we continue to commit despicable acts, instead of putting our trust in God and walking in His ways. May we open our eyes and realise that we are only creating our own illusions and false sense of security, and do our best to remain at rights with God, seeking forgiveness through the Sacrament of Confession when possible, lest we too end up in exile and captivity through our own negligence.