Word to the Wise
Thursday, August 20, 2020 - Thursday in the 20th Week in Ordinary Time
[Ezek 36:23-28 and Matt 22:1-14]I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all you idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts. I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes, careful to observe my decrees. You shall live in the land I gave your ancestors; you shall be my people, and I will be your God. [Ezekiel]
AUGUST 20 ST. BERNARD, abbot and doctor of the church
Ezekiel preached to a people in exile from their home and temple. His narrative of their situation was simply that they were in exile because they had failed religiously and morally as a nation. They had taken on foreign deities and customs and had made political alliances that amounted to an abandonment of their covenant with God. As a result, they were conquered and carried off into exile.
Ezekiel was a Jewish temple priest. His approach to Israel's exile was to emphasize religious and moral renewal. HIs words in today's first scripture sum up his prophetic message of renewal of the covenant with God. Do these words find an echo in us? Our own national culture exalts patriotism and the economy to levels that are almost religious in nature. True faith and religion become a private individual practice which then leads to a moral relativism. What is right becomes only what is legal, which turns all moral authority over to the political state. Given the polarization of the political state at this point, this can mean every person is on his or her own. The COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of the George Floyd tragedy have uncovered some weaknesses in our political and moral culture that, if left unaddressed on all levels - national, state, local and church/faith - can destroy us. Our notions of American exceptionalism and superiority have been severely challenged by a virus!!
Ezekiel challenges us to come out of a self-imposed moral quarantine to a renewed sense of purpose and community and a determination to address the deeply rooted individualism and terrible record of racism that our current situation has revealed to us. God is offering us "natural hearts" instead of "stony hearts." Do we have the courage to accept the offer? AMEN