Scripture:
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Matthew 22:34-40
Reflection:
In our first reading we have a dramatic account of the prophet Ezekiel being led “in the spirit of the Lord,” in the “center of the plain, which was now filled with bones.” And walking among all those bones, Ezekiel exclaims, “How dry they were!”
When we think of the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, and all sorts of conflicts of which we are unaware, it doesn’t take much imagination to imagine fields filled with the bones of so many, too many, dead. We can also imagine the bones of all victims of violence. And we can go even further and imagine so many people feeling dead inside, worn down by poverty or oppression or simply despair. And we may be tempted to exclaim in a manner similar to Ezekiel, saying, “How desolate and hopeless this all looks!”
In our first reading, God tells Ezekiel to prophesy over those bones, and Ezekiel witnesses something amazing: the bones start coming together, and muscles and flesh begin to cover them, but there is no spirit in the bodies. And so, God tells Ezekiel to prophesy again, and the bodies come to life! And again, God tells Ezekiel to prophesy: “Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord…”
For those people who feel dry and dead inside; to the world that is hurting from so much violence, we, too are called to prophesy. But how? The best way we have is what we hear in our Gospel reading. In that reading a scholar of the Mosaic Law comes up to Jesus to test Him. He asks Jesus, “Teacher, which commandment is the greatest?” Jesus replies, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
It couldn’t be that simple, could it?
Fr. Phil Paxton, C.P., is the local superior of the Passionist Community in Birmingham, Alabama.