Ezekiel 16:1-15, 60, 63 / Matthew 19:3-12
God speaks of Israel: “I loved you, but you deserted me.”
Some time ago America magazine carried an article
entitled “Adult Runaway.” It dealt with the growing number of adults who desert
their spouses and families. These adults almost always end up unhappy. Quoting
the head of the Missing Person’s Bureau of Los Angeles, the article says: “The
majority . . . would give anything to be back living their former lives. But
they mistakenly figure there’s no way they can undo the past.”
Today’s reading compares Israel to an adult runaway. It also
portrays God as being willing to forgive if the runaway would only return.
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How do we handle family frustrations? Do we seek help when
these frustrations become “unbearable,” or do we foolishly hope the situation
will remedy itself? “A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt
each day.” Andre Maurois
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Introduction
In poignant, at times almost crude terms, springing from a
heart that loves deeply and is hurt by infidelity, the prophet Ezekiel reminds
the people of God’s covenant love. What the people are, what we are, we are by
God’s love. He has linked his destiny to ours and cannot forget or abandon us,
even it we desert him.
God reveals some qualities of his own love in the love of
husband and wife. It is a love that reveals, in which a person discloses
himself to another person as intimately as possible. It is a love that accepts
the other person as he or she is and is willing to share everything together.
It is a love that sacrifices all self-interests for the partner. It is a
faithful love. It is also a love that is creative, that brings out the best in
the other person. Is this not an image of God’s love and, conversely, is God’s
Trinitarian love and his love for us not the model of all human love?
***
Ezekiel tells the story of Jerusalem and its rise from a
tiny, corrupt backwater pagan town to the corrupt grand capital of David's kingdom.
He frames it as an allegory like a motion picture from the 40's. A wealthy man
finds a young girl in the gutter. He cleans her up, gives her everything and
then she leaves him for someone else. In the section between verses 1 5 and 60,
omitted from the reading, Ezekiel describes her activities in graphic terms
that prudes might call "pornographic." It does catch one's attention.
Ezekiel sees the relationship between God and Jerusalem as a
marriage that had broken down. God remains faithful and ready to heal His
wanton people. Ezekiel's core message is that God will not abandon His people
despite their sin.
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We are familiar with the proverb "Great oaks grow from
little acorns". Indeed, everything has a humble beginning. Great
cathedrals were once started from a single block of stone. If Rome wasn't build
in a day, then everything will have to grow and be built day by day. Humble
beginnings must always be remembered, so that however glorious or whatever
greatness is achieved, one won't get too proud or conceited.
In fact, as nature would show us, the taller the tree, the
deeper the roots. The greater we become, the more we must remember how we
began.
In the 1st reading, we read how God favoured His people and
blessed them with abundance. But as the 1st reading tells us, they became
infatuated with their own beauty. Their vanity made them think that it was all
their own achievement and that also made them turn away from God and turn to
the other nations for more wealth and fame. They forgot that it was God who provided
for them and it was His blessings that made them famous and prosperous.
Because they forgot their humble beginnings, God treated them as they deserved - they were covered with shame and reduced to silence. They were humbled so that they can remember the covenant that God made with them and turn back to Him.
Similarly, for us, in whatever state of life, we must
remember our humble beginnings and remember that it is God who brought us to
this blessed moment.
So, whether in marriage, or as a single, or as a religious or priest, minor or governor, peasant or president, let us continue to turn to the Lord our God for His blessings and guidance in life.
It is God who will make us great and prosperous; we just need to be humble and remember our humble beginnings.