FIRST READING

EXPLANATION: Ezekiel, one of the four major prophets of the Old Testament, carried out his office of God's mouthpiece to the Chosen, People from 593-571 B.C. In 597 he was among the nobles of Judah carried into exile by Nabuchadnezzar of Babylon, together with king Jehoiakim. Some four years after his arrival in Babylon, God appointed him to speak to his fellow-exiles. The burden of his preaching was that Judah had brought this exile on herself by her infidelity to Yahweh, her God. Worse was still to come. Jerusalem and its temple, which had been desecrated by unworthy priests, would be razed to the ground. Judah would cease to exist as a nation and all the able bodied people would be taken as slaves to Babylon. As he, and Jeremiah also, had foretold: all of this happened in 587.

Then in the latter half of his ministry, he began to console the exiles and to promise them that, having undergone their just punishment, they would be restored to their homeland. A new Jerusalem and a new temple would be built. The people, purified by the exile, would serve God with a new heart and a new spirit. The heart of stone, which they had up to now, would be replaced by a heart of flesh (see 11: 18-19). This part of the prophecy was not completely fulfilled until the coming of Christianity. The verses taken from Ezekiel today, treat of his appointment as prophet––-God's representative––-among the exiles in Babylon.
The Spirit...me: Ezekiel is conscious that God, through his Spirit whom he has received, has chosen him as his prophet or mouthpiece.
heard the Lord: He has no doubt about the authenticity of his vocation––-it is God himself who speaks to him.
Son of man: This simply means "man," or human being. When used by our Lord of himself it has a vague messianic connotation. It is not easily recognizable and that is why he used it.
Israel...rebels: This is a true description. With a few notable exceptions since the time of king Jehoram 848, the kings of Judah had been disloyal to their God and the people as a whole followed the bad example of their kings. It was this disloyalty to Yahweh which brought on them the Babylonian exile.
impudent and stubborn: They positively insulted their God not only by forgetting to thank and serve him but by turning to false gods. Again and again he sent his prophets to correct them but in vain. They remained hard-hearted and stubborn.
I...them: Even in the exile of Babylon, brought on them by their sins against God, he did not leave them uncared for. He sent his representative to them. He raised up one of their number to be his mouthpiece among them.
whether they hear: They neglected God but they could never accuse God of neglecting them. He sent them Ezekiel and later he would send second-Isaiah. They would lose if they did not listen to his word.

APPLICATION: As we read it in the historical books of the Old Testament, the history of the Chosen People is a sad commentary on the meanness of human beings in their dealings with God. God had been a Father to the Israelites, ever since he brought them out of the slavery of Egypt. But even during the desert journey to the Promised Land which he had arranged to give them, they murmured and rebelled against him. When they eventually settled in Canaan, with the help of his almighty hand, they very soon forgot him. Harassed by the neighboring pagan people, they remembered him and called on him. He sent them the Judges to free them from their enemies. He allowed them to establish a monarchy and he aided and assisted the first occupants of the throne, but as their temporal affairs prospered their spiritual interests declined. For over four hundred years, from the death of David to the fall of Jerusalem, only four of the eighteen kings in Judah were loyal to Yahweh and encouraged the people to serve him.

As God said in today's reading: the Chosen People, to whom he was sending Ezekiel, were a "nation of rebels." The very fact that he was sending a prophet, his own representative, to them notwithstanding their unworthiness, makes us marvel at this infinite mercy and love. Who but the infinite God could keep on sending prophet after prophet, giving chance after chance to this stubborn rebellious people to change their mind? He could have abandoned them and found some people more worthy of his paternal interest, but he did not. He was God and was able to use their very disloyalty for his purpose. The Babylonian exile, which they had now brought on themselves, saw the end of their kingdom and their kings. The Messiah, the "blessing" promised to Abraham and the descendant foretold to David who would make his throne glorious forever, would now be born not in a palace but in a stable, not in wealth and luxury but in the direst poverty.

All this was foreseen and fore-planned by God. He used the disloyalty of his Chosen People to bring his plan to fulfillment. Would we want it otherwise? Had Christ been born in a king's palace in Jerusalem, had he grown up as a prince surrounded by courtiers and noblemen, would he have had the effects he had on the minds and hearts of ninety nine percent of those who became his followers? If agnostics and rationalists try to pick flaws in the eternal truths he proclaimed, when humanly speaking, he was only a carpenter from Nazareth, what faults could they not find in his teaching if he had been one of the earthly nobility? All of these "ifs," however, are futile, because God planned things the right way and the best way. The Son of God, the King of kings, not only humbled himself by taking our created human nature, but he took that human nature and became as one of the lowest and the poorest of that time.

Just as the Chosen People, on whom he had lavished his love, proved to be unfaithful to him and unworthy of their election so will it be until the end of time. Of the hundreds of millions of Christians in our world today, how many are loyal and truly grateful for all that God has done for them? How many cherish the eternal inheritance Christ has won for them? Are not many imitating the Chosen People of old; ignoring and insulting God, forgetful of all he has done for them, and forgetting their one and only purpose in life? These Christians are foolishly and sinfully preparing to lose the inheritance Christ won for them. They are ready to sacrifice their King and their eternal kingdom.

It could happen to any one of us. God forbid that it should. If it should, the loss would be ours, a fatal and eternal loss. God will not suffer––-we shall. God sent his prophets to speak to his Chosen People even when they were in exile. He will not, and cannot, send any prophet to us in our eternal exile, for our judgement at the moment of death will seal our fate forever. Daily he is sending his messengers to us while we are still alive. Turn aside today from the bustle and noise of this empty world, and listen to God's whisper in your heart: "Where would you like to be a hundred years from today?" The decision is in your own hands.

After the two power-draining miracles we heard about last week, what happens when Jesus goes home? Why?