Haggai’s Call to the Weary and Lost

Today, the Church shifts our attention to the prophet Haggai (1:1-8), who lived during the return from the Babylonian exile and worked alongside Ezra the Levite, Nehemiah, and the prophet Zechariah. His mission was simple but urgent: to encourage a weary people who had lost interest in rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem to rise up and begin again.

At that time, the people had turned their focus to building their own homes (a necessary work), but they neglected the Temple—the heart of their nation, their worship, and their identity. Haggai reminded them that this neglect had real consequences:

“You have sown much, and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes” (Haggai 1:6).

In other words, their lack of satisfaction and fruitfulness was tied to their neglect of God’s house.

A New Call

Friends, today we are also called to contribute to the building of the Temple, both the physical temples of our parishes and the spiritual temple of our own bodies, for we are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19).

But one of the great enemies of this temple today is addiction.

Addiction destroys the soul because it creates false masters—pleasure, substances, or habits—that chain our freedom. It replaces God’s Spirit with restlessness, and it distorts our dignity as God’s children. Addiction is like a worm that eats from within: it wounds our relationships, blinds us to God’s presence, and weakens the body and soul meant for worship. It is the opposite of freedom, and it turns the temple of the Spirit into a place of emptiness and pain.

Friends, just as Haggai called the people to rise and rebuild, so too must we rise against the ruins that sin and addiction leave in our hearts. Rebuilding begins when we put God first again, when worship, prayer, and generosity to His Church take priority in our lives.

Come, Holy Spirit, heal the wounds that addictions have caused in our hearts and bodies. Free us from every chain that destroys Your temple within us. Give us the grace to be generous toward the Church and to build our lives on You, our true foundation and freedom.

Amen.