Ezekiel presents the awe-inspiring spectacle of a vast army, “rising on stepping-stones of their dead selves to higher things” to quote my favorite humorist, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse. And our Lord is asked to choose the greatest commandment and gives us a loving response. Thank you, dear reader, for joining me on a reflective stroll through the scriptural delights for today.
Teach me your paths, my God. Guide me in your Truth. – PS 23:4B, 5A
Shake, Rattle and Roll
As the Spirit leads Ezekiel on a saunter across the vast plain, he sees the remnants of the former house of Israel, routed and destroyed, bones dried up, hope irrevocably lost and utterly cut off from the land of the living. How dry they were! Could they be revived? Who can raise these up but Our LORD alone? And as Ezekiel speaks the prophetic words at his Master’s bidding, he witnesses the bones come together, perfectly slotting into sockets, sinews and tissues restored, as the Spirit of the LORD rejuvenates, vivifies, and revives the vast army that now stands at the ready.
“O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them. O my people, I will put my spirit in you that you may live. Thus you will know that I am the LORD.” – EZ 37: 12, 14
Resurrection!
I imagine it will be like this at the end of the age. Ezekiel’s reading has a key tenet of our faith buried in it: the Resurrection of the Dead. Imagine the vast host of our beloved dead, raised to life again, with the Spirit of God within them, linking arms with the communion of saints, glorifying God with all their might, with all their strength, with all their understanding, with all their love. There, beyond this vale of tears, where every tear has been wiped away and sorrow turned into rejoicing.
It’s back to the basics in this one, people! The Nicene Creed, anyone?
I believe In the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Communion of Saints. I believe in the Resurrection of the Dead. I believe in Life Everlasting. I believe! Amen, I do believe!
Faith, Hope and Love
Ancient Israel was a people with their hope cut off. As we look around this broken world, we can see many hopeless causes and the machinations of the Evil One appear to be inexorable, where awful travesties parade as virtues and the temptation would be to shrug a shoulder or two and consign the innumerable cares on the scrap heap. Yet, we are purchased at an incalculable price, and we are called to give an answer. Indeed, there shall be an answer and it’s to be found on every single page of the Bible. When the learned scholar asks for the greatest commandment, our Lord doesn’t reduce the scheming pharisee to a burnt crisp, but meekly and succinctly replies: Love God. Love Neighbor. In fact, I daresay he could have shrunk it down to one word: Love.
It’s the only answer, and it’s the most difficult of all. When the blood of the innocent cries out to us, we are called not to breathe murderous threats, but rather the Holy Spirit. We are called to repay evil with love. At the end of your life and mine, when our hope is fading and we are called to answer for our lives, the extent to which we loved Our Lord and humanity is our only hope. At the end of the age, Faith and Hope disappears and we are left with the greatest virtue. In a recent liturgy, we heard this exquisite phrase: “when human nature is called back to original holiness.” Amen! Dear LORD, increase our faith, our hope but especially our Love and help us to love like you!
