Download Theology One Eighty “A House of Prayer for All Peoples”

Theology One Eighty
“A House of Prayer for All Peoples”
Few writers, ancient or contemporary, can match the beauty of the Prophet Isaiah. It is from the
passage from Isaiah proclaimed as today’s First Reading that we have the title for this week’s
Theology One Eighty. “Thus says the Lord...my house shall be called a house of prayer for all
peoples.” But what does this mean?
What did it mean for the Jewish people, for whom it was first written? That’s hard to say, as
there are multiple and varied and rich interpretations among the Jewish people for just about
every line of the Hebrew Scriptures. But one later rabbinic interpretation was quite literal: Jerusalem’s Temple would be the place where the world came to worship, with ten gentiles hanging
to the tassels of every Jew’s prayer shawl, as he went up to Mt. Zion to pray. Wouldn’t that be
a great way to measure the work of evangelization? To be able to say at the end of one’s life: “I
sponsored ten new Catholics through the R.C.I.A.!” Never mind that God also had some pretty
strong words, and actions, for those who took to counting his people and reducing them to numbers.
We might consider three points in understanding Isaiah’s prophecy.
First, “house” doesn’t mean a specific house, temple, church building or place. It means the
gathering of the Christian faithful, in the Spirit, as the Body of Christ, wherever, whenever. Remember Jesus’ prediction that if the temple was destroyed, in three days it would be raised
again? And how his listeners were puzzled as to how a building that took seventy years to build
could be rebuilt in three days? And how the Gospel writer adds the editorial comment, that Jesus was of course referring to himself? Remember Jesus’ promise that wherever two or three
are gathered in his name, he is present? In real estate, as in some other religions, it might be
about location, location, location. But in Christianity, the house is wherever the Spirit gathers
the Body of Christ, the Priesthood of the Baptized.
Second, “all people” doesn’t mean everyone alive will physically be there. Christianity won’t
be successful (in terms of faithfulness to Jesus and the Gospel) based on a head count. As
Catholics, the biggest Christian community in the world, this might be hard to grasp. But even
we have never been, aren’t now, and most likely never will be the Church everyone belongs to.
And in some times and places we have been downright miniscule. It’s good to be careful in
choosing the criteria by which we wish to be judged, isn’t it?
And third, “prayer” is the reality that makes any sense of it all. Where is the “house” Isaiah
foresees? Wherever Christians are gathered, in the Spirit, as the Body of Christ, in prayer to the
Father. What about “all people” Isaiah envisions? If not physically gathered in one place, is it
a matter of “out of sight, out of mind?” No, remember all those previous Theology One Eighties that dealt with our sharing in the One Priesthood of Jesus Christ? A Priesthood that is one
of mediation and intercession and the raising up of the needs of the whole world. The community of believers is Christ the Priest, the House of God, where the peace and salvation of the
whole world is ever in our hearts and minds, and on our lips and in our prayer.
© Rev. Todd O. Grogan, The Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, August 17, 2008