"They will be my people and I will be their God" (Compare Ezekiel 37: 21-28)

In today's first reading, Ezekiel 37: 21-28, God says that He "will take the Israelites back...."  They shall  no longer "defile themselves with their idols, their abominations, and all their transgressions. I will deliver them from all their sins of apostasy, and cleanse them so that they may be my people and I may be their God."  Is that what God is doing through the coronavirus? Is he using this disease to turn us away from our "sins of apostasy," and to cleanse us so that we may be His people and God may be our God forever, and not the idols to which we have come--the accumulation of more and more material things, the multiplication of hedonistic, pleasurable experiences; wealth and the becoming of millionaires and billionaires, dominating and controlling others, being superior to others?

All of us are vulnerable to the coronavirus. No one is exempt. And to overcome this virus, we need to work together as one nation, one people,  one world!  All survive in cooperation with one another or no one survives.  We are called to turn away from the sins of exclusion, domination, control, one person being superior to another, lording it over others and all the sins associating with these behaviors!  God is God. There is no other God but God! May this virus cause us to fall down on our knees to the one true God and beg forgiveness and deliverance from this evil and the evil of of worshiping our egos and not doing what is best for each other in love!

Recognizing our "Leprosy" and Posing the Right Question

In today's Gospel, Luke 5: 12-16, a leper approaches Jesus and says to Him: "'Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.' Jesus stretched out his ha d, touched him, and said, 'I do will it. Be made clean.' and the leprosy left him immediately."

Well aware of the fact that he is to yell out "unclean, unclean," to warn people to keep their distance, the leper bravely, determinately and unafraid of what anyone thinks, approaches Jesus! He takes responsibility for change in his life, for crossing barriers that lock him into an unhealthy state in life. Jesus, in turn, knowing the cultural situation in that He, too, is to stay away from lepers, not touch them, stretches out his hand and commands the disease to exit this man's body!  Both take risks!  Both take responsibility! Both do what the Spirit leads them to do!  Both experience and exercise freedom!  Both are true to themselves!

Like the leper, you and I are unclean. The leprosy of selfishness and pride, greed and envy, lust and avarice, fear and shame, or whatever, creates barriers between ourselves and others, just as the disease of leprosy was a barrier that kept those with the disease from having healthy contact with others.  Jesus and Jesus alone is the answer to the removal of obstacles to healthy living in our personal lives and relationships!  When we approach Him and pose the question "Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean," Jesus responds: "I do will it. Be made clean."

 If we remain in "leprous" states, what do we need to do differently so that, like the leper, we seek Jesus, fall on our knees, and pose the question!

You Shall be My People and I Shall be Your God

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!