In these two windows we can see the importance of the Temple to Mary and Joseph as devout children of Israel, and their compliance with the laws of God and His institutions. They remind us of our duty to worship God, and to obey Him through the laws of His Church. 

It is fitting that these windows are the closest to the Altar and to the three windows above it which depict offerings and sacrifices, because the Temple was the place where the Jewish priests offered blood sacrifices on an altar. It is also fitting that the Blessed Virgin Mary appears in these two windows, for her Son would become the Temple, High Priest, and Sacrifice. 

The Temple seen here was built in Jerusalem on Mt. Moriah, the scene of Abraham's near sacrifice of Isaac. This place, "the mountain of the Lord's house" {Isaiah 2:2}, is often referred to metaphorically as "Zion" by the Psalmists and prophets. The first Temple at this site was built circa 1000 B.C. by King Solomon, son of David, to house the Ark of the Covenant. Because of God's presence in the "Holy of Holies", the Israelites saw the Temple as the intersection between Heaven and Earth. Thus, the building and its city were considered to be the center of the world, and even of the universe. Because Jerusalem was the site of Christ's death and Resurrection, Christians continued to see the city as the axis mundi, and it was often the central point on old maps of the world. 

Jerusalem and the first Temple were destroyed in 586 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzer, and the precious Ark disappeared. The city was resettled by Jews in 538 B.C., and the second Temple was completed 23 years later. Jerusalem was captured in 168 B.C. by Syrian King Antiochus IV, who desecrated the Temple by erecting a statue of Zeus Olympius. The heroic Judas Maccabeus took the city back three years later, and rededicated the Temple during an eight day festival {see 1 Maccabees 4:56-59}. This event was the origin of the Jewish Hannukah celebration. The second Temple was greatly enlarged by Herod the Great circa 37 B.C. 

Herod's Temple was the building known to Jesus and His contemporaries. Here the priest Zechariah received the annunciation of the birth of his son, John the Baptist {see Luke 1:5-25}. It was the scene of Jesus' Presentation forty days after His birth, when Anna and Simeon gave their prophecies {2:22}; where Mary and Joseph found Him teaching the elders {2:41-50}; and where He expelled the merchants and money changers {see John 2:13-22 and Mark 11:15-19}. He referred to it as "My Father's house" {Luke 2:49}, and showed His respect for it by paying the Temple tax. It is significant that He had this tax to the old house and system of worship paid by St. Peter, the Rock upon which He would found His new Church {see Matthew 17:24-27}. 

Jesus compared Himself to the Temple {see John 2:19-21}, and revealed to His Apostles that He was greater than the holy building {see Matthew 12:6}. He wept when He pondered the future destruction of it and its city {see Luke 19:41-44 and 21:6}. His figurative foretelling of the Temple's destruction and raising up in three days (He was actually referring to His Body) would be used against Him in His trial by the Sanhedrin {see Matthew 26:60-61 and Mark 14:57-58}. A stone stairway connected this Temple to the Praetorium, where the Roman Procurator Pontius Pilate would condemn Jesus to be crucified. 

St. Paul, in the days when he was known as Saul, studied Judaism here under Gamaliel {see Acts 22:3}. Before his conversion on the road to Damascus, he most likely came here to get authority from the high priest Caiaphas to persecute Christians and raid their communities. Paul was later siezed and dragged from the Temple when he attempted to spread the Gospel message {21:27-34}. 

The second Temple was destroyed by Titus and the Roman occupying army after Jewish uprisings in 70 A.D., and a pagan temple dedicated to Jupiter was built on the site by Hadrian. Byzantine Emperor Justinian built a Christian church here in 534 A.D. When the Muslims took control of the land in 638, they replaced the church with a mosque called the "Dome of the Rock". The adherents of Islam believe this is the spot from which their prophet Mohammed ascended into Heaven. Venerated by members of three great faiths, the site is today a source of much conflict and tension. Some Orthodox Jews in Israel want to forcibly take this mount away from the Muslims and rebuild the Temple. 

The crucifixion of Christ presaged the destruction of the Temple. At the moment of Christ's death on the Cross, the veil before the Holy of Holies in the Temple was torn in two {see Matthew 27:51, Mark 15:38, and Luke 23:45}. The rending of this veil showed that God's Truth was no longer concealed and accessible only to the high priest. It would thenceforth be accessible to all who lived by the Spirit and in Truth. Each believer would become a temple of God, a sacred place, reflecting the splendor of the Divine. All believers together would constitute the great temple of the Church, the Body of Christ {see Ephesians 2:21-22}, a spiritual house made of living stones, with Christ, the "stone which the builders rejected" as "the cornerstone" {see 1 Peter 2:4-7}. When the New Jerusalem descends from Heaven no house of worship will be necessary, "for the Lord God and the Lamb are the Temple of it" {Revelation 21:22-23}. 

- Benjamin Schmolck (ca. 1732) 

                        translated by Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878) 

- From a Scottish hymnal, 1781 

- George Weissel (1590-1635) 

                            translated by Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878)