The Relevancy of God's Word

Yesterday's first reading from the prophet Ezekiel was immensely relevant to all that is transpiring in the Church. Yesterday's reading points to the utter moral failure of Israel's leaders to care for the people entrusted to them. Once again, we have witnessed this failure in moral leadership and guidance, this time by those Roman Catholic priests who abused children and those bishops who chose to hide these crimes.

And in God's providence, today's reading from Ezekiel offers a word of hope. It is God alone who is the true shepherd of God's people. God will transform our cold, deadened hearts - made so by the gravity of the sexual abuse crisis and the cover-up scandal - into living, loving hearts once again. It is through the tender compassion of our God that all who have been scattered will be re-gathered together and made whole again.

There is hope in the midst of the scandal of these crimes and sins. Our hope is in the Lord. We put our faith in the justice, the mercy, and the peace of God. It is God alone who gathers, God alone who heals, and God alone who transforms. In God, we put our trust.


Yesterday's first reading (Ezekiel 34:1-11):
The word of the Lord came to me:
Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel,
in these words prophesy to them to the shepherds:
Thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the shepherds of Israel
who have been pasturing themselves!
Should not shepherds, rather, pasture sheep?
You have fed off their milk, worn their wool,
and slaughtered the fatlings,
but the sheep you have not pastured.
You did not strengthen the weak nor heal the sick
nor bind up the injured.
You did not bring back the strayed nor seek the lost,
but you lorded it over them harshly and brutally.
So they were scattered for the lack of a shepherd,
and became food for all the wild beasts.
My sheep were scattered
and wandered over all the mountains and high hills;
my sheep were scattered over the whole earth,
with no one to look after them or to search for them.

Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:
As I live, says the Lord GOD,
because my sheep have been given over to pillage,
and because my sheep have become food for every wild beast,
for lack of a shepherd;
because my shepherds did not look after my sheep,
but pastured themselves and did not pasture my sheep;
because of this, shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:
Thus says the Lord GOD:
I swear I am coming against these shepherds.
I will claim my sheep from them
and put a stop to their shepherding my sheep
so that they may no longer pasture themselves.
I will save my sheep,
that they may no longer be food for their mouths.

For thus says the Lord GOD:
I myself will look after and tend my sheep.


Today's first reading (Ezekiel 36:23-28):
Thus says the LORD:
I will prove the holiness of my great name,
profaned among the nations,
in whose midst you have profaned it.
Thus the nations shall know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD,
when in their sight I prove my holiness through you.
For I will take you away from among the nations,
gather you from all the foreign lands,
and bring you back to your own land.
I will sprinkle clean water upon you
to cleanse you from all your impurities,
and from all your 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.