Redeemed, Restored, Resurrected to Glory

In today’s first reading,  Ezra 9: 5-9, the prophet is bowed down in grief as he considers the ways in which the Chosen People have sinned against the Lord, our God.  “From the time of our fathers even to this day great has been our guilt, and for our wicked deeds we have been delivered up, we and our kings and our priests, to the will of the kings of foreign lands, to the sword, to captivity, to pillage, and to disgrace, as is the case today.”   How true all of this is in our day as well. Our country, our families, our society, our church and the world at largehave been delivered up to sin, to the slavery of selfishness, to the lust for power,  control, for pleasures of all sorts at other people’s expense.  Our lands are pillaged by earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, fires, tornadoes, tsunamis.  The lives of our children are ruined by human traffickers, drug traffickers, perpetrators of domestic violence and wars within and between nations, violators of human rights, especially those of the poor and even those of the unborn.  We are brought low on all sides.   

Ezra, not only acknowledges his peoples’ sins but also recognizes God’s incredible mercy, saying:  “And now, but a short time ago, mercy came to us from the Lord, our God, who left us a remnant and gave us a stake in his holy place; thus our God has brightened our eyes and given us relief in our servitude.” Do you and I  realize that, in our day, Jesus has given us “a stake in his holy place,” by His death and resurrection, by the Eucharist and the Word of God in our midst, by each of the sacraments that restore us to right relationships with each other, with our deepest self--our God-self-- and with the world around us? By God’s mercy, you and I are being transformed every day into vessels of His grace and mercy as we carry the Good News and are “Good News” people to those we encounter! Oh, may that be so in an abundance today, as God blesses our efforts to experience our redemption and relate as the redeemed!