Catholic Commentary on Haggai 1

“Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” (Haggai 1:4)

The Book of Haggai

Haggai prophesied in Jerusalem in 520 BC, the second year of Darius I of Persia. The exiles had returned from Babylon under Zerubbabel and begun rebuilding the temple, but the work had stalled for about sixteen years due to opposition and discouragement. Haggai's four brief oracles over four months reignite the rebuilding project. His is the most precisely dated prophetic book, with each oracle stamped with an exact date.

The LORD's question cuts through every excuse: is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin? Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes in it. Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. The people obey the voice of the LORD their God, and the work begins.

The Catechism identifies the call to rebuild the temple as the figure of the Church's permanent call to build up the Body of Christ rather than pursue its own comfort (CCC 756).

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, you put wages into a purse with holes in it. The agricultural failures, the economic frustrations, the sense that effort does not produce result: all of this Haggai traces to one cause. The house of the LORD lies in ruins while your own houses are paneled. Consider your ways. The misalignment of priorities produces the leaking purse. Realign. Build the house. Watch the purse stop leaking.

Prayer

Lord God, is your house in ruins while we panel our own? Show us our misaligned priorities and give us the will to build your house first. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Haggai
1
A Call to Rebuild the Temple
(Ezra 5:1-5)
1 In the second year of the reign of Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak,* 1:1 Jehozadak is a variant of Jozadak; also in verses 12 and 14; see Ezra 3:2. the high priest, stating 2 that this is what the LORD of Hosts says:
 
“These people say, ‘The time has not yet come
to rebuild the house of the LORD.’ ”
 
3 Then the word of the LORD came through Haggai the prophet, saying:
 
4 “Is it a time for you yourselves
to live in your paneled houses,
while this house lies in ruins?”
 
5 Now this is what the LORD of Hosts says:
 
“Consider carefully your ways.
 
6 You have planted much
but harvested little.
You eat but never have enough.
You drink but never have your fill.
You put on clothes but never get warm.
You earn wages to put into a bag pierced through.”
 
7 This is what the LORD of Hosts says:
 
“Consider carefully your ways.
 
8 Go up into the hills,
bring down lumber, and build the house,
so that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,
says the LORD.
9 You expected much,
but behold, it amounted to little.
And what you brought home, I blew away.
Why? declares the LORD of Hosts.
Because My house still lies in ruins,
while each of you is busy
with his own house.
 
10 Therefore, on account of you
the heavens have withheld their dew
and the earth has withheld its crops.
11 I have summoned a drought
on the fields and on the mountains,
on the grain, new wine, and oil,
and on whatever the ground yields,
on man and beast,
and on all the labor of your hands.”
The People Obey
 
12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as well as all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. So the people feared the LORD.
 
13 Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, delivered the message of the LORD to the people:
 
“I am with you,”
declares the LORD.
 
14 So the LORD stirred the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as well as the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and began the work on the house of the LORD of Hosts, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.

*1:1 1:1 Jehozadak is a variant of Jozadak; also in verses 12 and 14; see Ezra 3:2.

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