For the Jews, the entire life centers around the temple of God on earth, the meeting point between life and death, between time and eternity. The Jerusalem temple was everything for the Jews; their national identity their reason for living, far more important than, say, the Vatican for us Catholics and the capitol dome in Washington for us Americans, combined. It was the only real sacred place on earth, the portal into heaven, the axis of the planet around which everything else revolved. Without the temple, life had no
direction or meaning. We can scarcely imagine what catastrophic impact that the destruction of the Temple would have on the people. The 9-11 terrorists had meant to fly the fourth plane into our capitol building,
but they failed.
Jesus, in today’s gospel predicts of the destruction of the Temple, which happened in the year 70 AD. God had left his temple and abandoned his people. From that point, the survivors in exile cried out day and night for God to return to his Temple, to his People. 
We long for God’s return to our land. Like the unfaithful Jewish nation, we too have denied his laws, we have offended him, we have banished him from the Public Square. We have denied his very existence, paying only feeble lip service to religion to keep the conservatives quiet. But even the most strident secularist longs for the Kingdom of justice and peace that only God can bring the human race. The good news is that God does return to his temple every day, at every Divine Liturgy. No priest is worthy, no son of Levi is pure enough, to bring God from heaven to this temple, to bring about reconciliation between God and man, but this same Lord sits in his temple, refining and purifying the sons of Levi, the priests, that they may offer due sacrifice to the Lord.
Let us thank God the Father, and thank his Holy Mother, for giving Jesus to us, freely giving the child into our arms, at every Divine Liturgy. Let us thank them by never missing one single Sunday Liturgy, if we can possibly attend.  Right worship at Liturgy and throughout the week is the only way to get to heaven, and to enjoy a bit of the peace and joy of heaven on earth.