Haggai, Prophet

Today we commemorate Haggai. Haggai is one of the twelve minor prophets. It was written after Cyrus allowed the Jews to return to Judea and begin rebuilding the temple. Haggai rebukes the Jews for their indifference toward the rebuilding of the temple and warns them against an Ex Opere Operato understanding of the sacrifiices and temple worship. Haggai also contains much Messianic prophecy. Haggai said the Messiah would be a descendent of Zerubbabel. One of the antiphones for Advent is from Haggai 2:1-9, 20-23 and says, "O King of the nations, the ruler they long for, the cornerstone uniting all people: Come and save us all, whom You formed out of clay."