In the second week of Advent, Sr Patricia Rumsey reflects on the tension between the early Christian disdain for ‘temples and altars’ and the reverence we still have for ‘holy places’

According to Micah 5:2, the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. This was taken up in the gospels, and has been immortalised in Christmas carols such as “O Little Town of Bethlehem”.

The reverence paid to “holy places” such as Nazareth and Jerusalem, as well as Bethlehem, points up what seems to be a fundamental urge: to revere places where people seen to be somehow “special” have lived.

But how does this relate to these words attributed to Jesus: “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem … the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth … (John 4:21)?