Say what you will, but Jesus certainly had this call correct:
While some people were speaking about how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings, Jesus said, “All that you see here – the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.”
The Wailing Wall
Two thousand years later, people still mourn the destruction of what must have been one of the ancient world’s most spectacular edifices. They (we) still show up at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, and venerate the rubble.
Indeed, I myself felt drawn to touch what’s left of Herod’s Temple. I discovered that the ruins contain an almost palpable energy. In the cool hewn stones, you can feel remnants of the human misery they witnessed in 70 AD. Remnants, too, of the national / political / religious pride that preceded the misery.
Not a stone will be left upon a stone…
It’s all there at the Wailing Wall – the best and worst of every human instinct.
It’s all there, too, I noticed, in the apocalyptic readings we hear this time of year at Sunday Mass. The scripture texts seem to caution us against ever getting too comfortable. And it’s easy to get caught up in the dire predictions of ‘wars, insurrections…earthquakes, famines and plagues from place to place.’
We get so caught up in the predictions, in fact, that we can tend to overlook the promise of Christ’s presence:
I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.
I think I felt a bit of that power yesterday, when I was blessed to take part in a lectio divina workshop at our parish. One of the facilitators, Fr. Phil Krill, reminded us that temple buildings and church facilities never have been a reliable source of spiritual strength. “Your temple may well tumble in your lifetime,” he said.
But we do have something – or more precisely, Someone – much more powerful to cling to: Jesus Christ. God, incarnate.
God, become human…so that we humans can become God. “It sounds heretical,” he said. But it’s actually a mystical truth of our faith, one that’s been taught since the earliest days of Christianity.
Fr. Phil shared a prayer with us, to help us meditate on this prized consolation we are offered. I find it altogether too moving to keep to myself.
A prayer, drawing on the wisdom of St. Athanasius
Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.
IHS
With Us Still 
thanks john –i love and preach this message often –god lives in us and we live in god as jesus taught us –god is one w us and all creation especially when we gather as the body of christ for worship and love/care for all god’s children –in jesus’ peace -john reiker
Yes, a truth so beautiful…it sometimes seems hard to believe..
Thank you John for sharing this moving prayer. I tried to find it on The Printery House site, but I can’t. Might have to ask my granddaughter to write it out in calligraphy for me, so I can see it daily. The incarnation is the most moving miracle of our faith for me. God loves us so much that His son became one of us…this prayer spells it out perfectly! Again, thank you for sharing.
My pleasure, Mary…and a blessed Advent to you, John & family!