Fifth Sunday of Lent Year A

First Reading: Ezekiel 37: 12 - 14

Promise of new life

Introduction

Today's first reading is a further meditation on faith. On previous Sundays we looked at

•  Abraham's faith by which he moved to a new country;

•  Moses' faith by which he struck the rock and let it gush forth water;

•  Samuel's faith by which he anointed David king of Israel .

This Sunday we meditate on Ezekiel's faith bringing a message of hope to God's people in their despair.

As always in the liturgy, our meditation is also a celebration. We remember with gratitude the times when an individual or a community of faith (another Ezekiel) spoke a word of hope to us by inviting us to "dream the impossible dream" for ourselves, our families, our country and the world.

Like all bible passages, this one is "wisdom teaching". It invites us to take a deeper look at faith and so examine our consciences- do we people of faith bring hope to the world? as individuals? as a Church? as a school? as a social or political movement? In a word, are we Ezekiels for our time?

As we have done on the previous Sundays we read the passage "historically", continuing our Lenten journey through the Old Testament. We have moved forward from last Sunday to a new stage in the history of God's people. After many years of living in their own land, they are once more in exile, not in Egypt this time but in Babylon . This exile is more difficult to bear than the first as it is a punishment for their sins. God's people in every age are totally honest with themselves, and they are honest here although their honesty also brings discouragement - they wonder if there is any hope for themselves, if even God can save them.

This "historical" reading reminds us of a similar stage in our lives when we felt weighed down by the consequences of our wrong doing:

•  The break up of our family or of a friendship that was important to us

•  We ended up without a job.

•  Neglect of our health made us fall very sick.

•  We did something which caused us to lose our self-respect and the respect of others.

The promise of earlier days was long forgotten; we experienced ourselves as God's people forever stuck in exile.

Communities too go through that stage.

•  Our Church loses its way, as it has done several times in its history, allowing itself to compromise with social evils like slavery, neo-colonialism, racism or war.

•  A parish community is torn apart by endless internal quarrelling.

•  A neighbourhood once united sees no way forward out of backbiting and snobbishness.

•  A nation or a culture can see no solution to civil or ethnic strife.

•  The world's economic system is unable to bridge the gap between rich and poor nations; on the contrary, the gap grows ever wider.

In this situation of apparent hopelessness, leaving us paralysed and unable to move forward, persons (or communities) come on the scene, opening up new possibilities. Like Ezekiel, they speak out of deep inner conviction - "the Lord says this". At the sound of their voice, we feel a new burst of energy and can make a new start.

Meditation

Ezekiel's word of hope is in two movements and we enter into both.

•  Verses 12 and 14a give content - this is the future which beckons.

•  Verses 13 and 14b speak directly of the faith which is the basis of the prophet's hope

Verses 12 and 14a.

Biblical hope is always expressed in terms of a dramatic contrast:

•  a rock has the potential to become a spring of water which slakes the thirst of the community;

•  the youngest son who is out looking after the sheep is a future king;

•  the stone that was rejected will become the cornerstone;

•  the mighty will be cast down from their thrones and the lowly raised up;

•  when I am weak, then I am strong.

In order to enter into the text we must experience the contrast within it. We spend time focusing on the present, enter into the sadness of it, its hopelessness and the feeling of despair. We can then appreciate how bold (outlandish even) is the message of hope.

In today's passage, faith is expressed in three images all of which occur many times in the bible, Old and New Testaments. They have captured the imagination of God's people in every age, and can do the same for us today.

1 Life out of death, corresponds to Ezekiel's famous vision of the dried bones in verses 1-11.

The present: the grave: "our bones are dried up, our hope has gone, we are as good as dead", the dry bones in Ezekiel's vision.

The hope: new life in two images:

•  "I will open the graves." A large and impenetrable rock sealed the grave. Naturally we remember the "great stone" at the tomb of Lazarus, and the one at the tomb of Jesus. At the moment of salvation, the stone is removed, leaving the entrance wide open for the bodies to emerge.

•  "I will raise you from them." Corpses were lying inert on the ground inert; they start moving around, as in Ezekiel's vision, "breath entered them, they came to life again, and stood up on their feet, a great, an immense army." We remember Jesus command, "
Lazarus, here! Come out". We remember also Jesus appearing to the disciples in the Upper Room.

1. The image of the return from exile, echoes the two basic experiences of God's people, their journey from Egypt to the promised land and their return from Babylon to their own country.

Here again we must identify with the two stages:

•  The present: exile, alienation, the feeling of being a foreigner, always at risk of being deported, having to apologise for oneself.

•  The hope: the return from exile, in two images: "I will lead you back to the soil of Israel " - the joy of homecoming. "I will settle you on your own soil" -being settled, no more fear of being sent away at a moment's notice

3. New spirit. Like the first image, this one echoes the vision of the dried bones. It also echoes the creation story, "the Lord fashioned man of dust from the soil; then he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life and thus man became a living being".

The present: no spirit, like Adam before the Lord breathed on him, indistinguishable from the clay out of which he was made, like the dry bones in the valley.

The hope: new spirit, "you will live", like Adam when the Lord breathed on him, full of energy and vitality.

Verses 13 and 14b.

These verses speak directly of the faith which is the basis of the prophet's message of hope - "knowing that he is the Lord".

These words bring out two aspects of faith.

The first is that salvation is always possible; no situation, community or individual is beyond salvation.

The second is that only God saves. The leaders of Israel in the time of the prophets often looked for security in alliances with their powerful neighbours. Like them, we (and this includes us Christians and the Church as a whole) tend to base our hopes for the triumph of gospel values on alliances with the false values of our culture:

•  material goods like money, prestige and popularity,

•  ideologies like capitalism, socialism, nationalism, elitism,

•  abuses of religion like fundamentalism, fanaticism and exclusivism.

By faith we "know" (in the biblical sense of "experience") that our only hope must be in God personally and in transcendent values like integrity, honesty, sincerity, solidarity, etc.

Prayer 

 Lord, we pray that your Church may speak to our modern world as Ezekiel spoke to his, Jesus to his, and St Paul to his, proclaiming that you are the Lord and therefore no situation is without hope,

•  when people seem buried, your grace can open their graves and raise your people from them,

•  when they seem lifeless, their bones dried up and their hope gone, you can breathe your spirit in them,

•  when they are languishing in exile, you can bring them home and resettle them on their own soil.

We pray that this word of hope will unleash new energy within the human family so that our contemporaries can set about solving the long standing conflicts between groups:

•  races, social classes, and cultures within

individual societies,

•  the rich and poor nations of the world,

•  competing ideologies and political systems,

•  different faiths, religions and churches.