20th Week, Year 2, August 21, 2006

Scripture: Ezekiel 24:15-23. Deuteronomy 32:18-21; Matthew 19:16-22.

There are readings that are very difficult to listen to. In the Gospels these are called the hard sayings of Jesus. But they occur also in selections from the Prophets, the Psalm, and the Wisdom literature. We have an example of this in Ezekiel the prophet who does parables more than speaks them. Usually, they are based on a personal experience or something that will happen to Israel his people. Today we have the event of his beautiful wife dying. This may indicate that she was young and that he,too, was not old. He is called to use her death as a way of explaining to Israel, the spouse of God, what is to happen to her as God's chosen one who has become unfaithful. I personally do not think that Ezekiel's wife was unfaithful and the Scriptures are not saying that she was. But Ezekiel, following the inspiration of God to him, uses this as a parable in action to warn Israel that she is about to go into exile and her holy ornaments--the city of Jerusalem and its environs--will be desecrated and violated. The beautiful Temple will be plundered and burned.

During these past six months I have lost four close friends and several of my Marianist fellow brothers through death. The last two came so close to one another that I feel numb about these losses. I was graced to have the four anointed in a sacred and peaceful celebration of the sacrament of the Anointing in hospitals and in Hospices. The above reading made me think along these lines even though Ezekiel's account is more dramatic than what I have experienced. Many conversations and memories of times with them came back to me as I pondered the Scriptures in the light of these recent losses. How fragile human life is even here in the safest of countries. And daily to see the slaughter of so many people through war and terrorism makes all of us ponder these events and certainly to feel down about what is happening around the world. All of these men and women who have died are precious in the sight of the Lord and were splendidly created in God's image and likeness. I do believe this even though we fail often to live up to what God created in us. Today I am called to renew the covenant of love God gives me and to thank God for the departed friends who shared in that covenant with me. They have returned to their Creator. Somehow Jesus called them home and now he calls me to follow him more closely in all of these events of my life. I think Ezekiel went through the same thing and we all do as human beings. I take up this new day as an opportunity to live out that love God gives me and to thank God for the people who have been a part of my own journey. Amen.