THE LORD SPEAKS
"I will be their God, and they shall be My people" (Ezek. 37:27). These are very uplifting words for us readers! … Lent is a good time to reframe the questions we face, and with the help of prayer and Scripture, to find just and life-giving solutions.
In today's first reading the Lord speaks to Ezekiel and tells him to announce to Israel the end of their exile in all places. God says they are one nation now and will no longer worship any foreign gods (Ez 37:22-23). The people of Israel will dwell in a land given by Jacob and be ruled over by David. God's people shall enjoy peace forever and be multiplied, and our heavenly Father will put His sanctuary in their midst for all time. "I will be their God, and they shall be My people" (Ezek. 37:27). These are very uplifting words for us readers!
The responsorial psalm is taken from Jeremiah 31, and it is addressed to the nations, calling them to witness the return of God's people to their homeland: "Shouting, they shall mount the heights of Zion; they shall come streaming to the Lord's blessings: the grain, the wine, and the oil, the sheep and the oxen" (Jer. 31:12).
People often ask why the religious leaders didn't believe Jesus. Today's Gospel gives us one explanation: to do so would have brought destruction down on the Jewish nation from the Romans. The empire tolerated the Jewish religion, but it wasn't going to allow a new religion. So for the Jewish leaders the choice was either to eliminate Jesus or to lose the nation to the schemes of the Roman empire. This was not a win-win! It is sad that the chief priests and the Pharisees were blind to that blessing then present to them in the person of Jesus! Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, and the religious leaders were fearful that the people would go after this man, Jesus, who claimed to be the Messiah, rather than following the Jewish leaders themselves. All that the chief priest Caiaphas could suggest was to kill Jesus "so that the whole nation [would] not perish" (Jn. 11:50).
As we reflect on these readings before the start of Holy Week, consider what impossible situations have presented themselves to you and me. Lent is a good time to reframe the questions we face, and with the help of prayer and Scripture, to find just and life-giving solutions.