In today’s first reading, Ezekiel 36: 230-28, God says to each
of us through the prophet Ezekiel: “I will prove the holiness of my great name…
Thus the nations shall know that I am the Lord…when in their sight I prove my
holiness through you. For I will… gather
you from all the foreign lands, and bring you back to your own land. I will
sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from
all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new
spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you
natural hearts. I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my
statues, careful to observe my decrees. You shall…be my people, and I will be
your God.”
God is at work at this very moment proving His holiness
through you/me. He is gathering us from “foreign lands” that do not lead to the
holiness of God, that do not reflect God’s purity and goodness, that leads us
away from the Truth, the Way and the Life that Jesus is for us. God, at this very moment, is bringing us back
to our own land, that is, to being who
we are in His sight, to being the person God created us to be, men/ women of a
nature that is unique, that has the inner strength to make one’s own decisions,
decisions that lead to new life, new hope and a deeper faith in the power God puts within us every morning to be our own
persons, not the person someone else wants us to be, a person who seeks God’s
approval and the approval of one’s core self that is one with God. At this very moment God is cleansing us from
all of our idols: the idol of self, the idol of needing other people’s
approval, the idol of accumulating unnecessary possessions, the idol of
selfishness and narcissism, the idol of prideful pursuits, the idol of absolute
independence, the idol of sexual pleasures divorced of responsibilities and
discipline or any other God-substitute we have chosen as our sole security.
“Let Me be your security,” God says to us. “Place your trust
in me, not in things! Believe in Me as your Savior, your God.”
Our response: Psalm 51!
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