and I will bring you home...
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March 25, 2020
Peace and good to all!
During this time of the coronavirus I wanted to share a Scripture passage that struck me the other day. Some train of thought had led me to the book of Ezekiel, and my eyes fell on chapter 37: the valley of dry bones, where the Lord shows the prophet Ezekiel a startling vision of human bones coming together, being covered with flesh and sinews, and rising from the dead.“Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.” Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you home into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land…’”
(Ezek 37:11-14a)With the worldwide quarantine weighing on my heart, these words of God sprang upon me with a sense of hope – the scent of eternity clings to them the way the bright smell of the outdoors clings to a person’s clothes. They came as a powerful reminder that the world is much bigger than the quarantine, much bigger than the coronavirus, much bigger than any or every disaster that could befall our meager days.
The Resurrection puts everything in perspective.
This central fact - the heart of our hope, the heart of our faith - does not say that we will not experience death, discomfort, doubt, or fear. It says that those things are not the end of the story. It says that Christ can turn our spiritual winter into an unimaginable spring.
"I will open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people;
and I will bring you home."
So if you think you’re stuck at home, you’re not – you haven’t gotten home yet.
Our pilgrimage has certainly taken a surprising turn, and the coronavirus and the quarantine have interrupted a lot of things about our lives. But they have not interrupted our calling. Our home, St. Paul tells us, is in heaven (Phil 3:20), and being in our houses and at close quarters with our families shouldn’t diminish our daily effort to get there. Many saints – as Friar Antonio mentioned in last Sunday’s homily – have used just such a time as this to awaken from the mirage of worldly security and turn their lives towards the things of heaven, where there will be no theft, no decay, no virus, no death, and no more tears.I don’t know what you might be struggling with right now – maybe you’re stuck inside alone, maybe you’re stuck inside very much NOT alone. Maybe you’re unable to visit your elderly parents. Maybe you have a special-needs child that can’t receive the usual types of support. Maybe old temptations are creeping back into your life. Maybe you don’t know how you’re going to keep providing for your family or save your business.
I don’t know, but I want you to know that your concerns are in our prayers.
And I want to remind you that everything, even the coronavirus, pales in light of the eternity – body and soul, risen and rejoicing forever – that we have ahead of us if we stay close to Christ in His Church.
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