There is something clean, pure, and profoundly nurturing about God’s Truth in Scripture when it tells you something you need to hear for your life at this moment–when it hits home. There is a power and peace in God’s Word. It gives clarity and joy—even if it compels us to radical and difficult change. Hebrews 4:12 describes it as “The Word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between the soul and the spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and the thoughts of the heart.”
Ezra Reads God’s Word to the People
This is what happened in today’s first reading. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah go together. They tell of the rebuilding of walls, temple, and Jewish culture as the people returned from Babylon. Picture today’s scene. There is enough reconstruction done that people can believe that they really can rebuild faith, city, and culture. They seem to spontaneously gather. Ezra the scribe begins to read God’s Word to them. This would have been the Torah—the first five books of Scripture. He may have read the stories of their beginnings back to Adam and Eve, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He may have retold the story of the Exodus from Egypt. But the important thing on this day was that he read to them of the Law—God’s covenant and promises, as well as God’s expectations of his people.
Ezra read from daybreak until noon. The people stood and listened. As he read, Ezra explained what the Scripture meant. As he read, the people began to weep. My sense of it is that they both rediscovered who they were as people and what God expected of them. “We ARE God’s chosen people,” I can hear them say to each other. “God has led us, has taken care of us.” “He asks that we love and obey him in return.” “Oh, we have not done that so well!” “I didn’t know I should keep the Sabbath!” “I have coveted and been jealous of my neighbor.” “I have not honored my father and my mother.”
As people later said to Jesus, Peter, and Paul, the people wondered, “What must we do?” They saw the great difference between God’s standards and their own behavior.
Truth in God’s Word Leads to Joy as Well as Repentance
What a wonderful answer Ezra gave the people, “Today is holy to the Lord you God. Do not be sad and do not weep.” “Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks and allot portions to those who had nothing prepared, for today is holy to our Lord. Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the Lord must be your strength.”
How much that is like the story of the Prodigal Son that Jesus told. How much that is like Jesus’ calling of Matthew, of Zacchaeus, and even of the disciples at the Last Supper. When God comes and gives Truth, it is cause for celebration.
True, there is much hard work of repentance, reparation, and conversion to new life that must be done. But when God’s Word touches and changes us—first we rejoice. We rejoice because we have found something that makes our lives better.
Our God has come to meet us!
God has come in words to help us understand His ways are good ways.
Sunday’s readings came alive for me this past weekend. Father preached predominantly from the second reading, St. Paul’s great hymn of praise for Christ in Philippians. It was Respect Life Sunday in the US, so there was an emphasis on how the readings apply to Catholic teaching on the sanctity of all human life and the inherent dignity of each person.
It was the phrase “he emptied himself” that filled me. Emptying myself is just exactly where I’m struggling. Empty? How empty? As Father went on talking, he named issues that deeply concern me: how hospitals and families handle the dying process, our tendency to put elderly away from our daily lives, the need to relish the life God gives us, no matter how it is just now.
Poised as I am in a time of transition, God’s Word was literally like water softening hard baked clay in my will. It came between soul and spirit, marrow and bone, and released something in me. I wanted to be empty.
There is not yet quite a clarity of path, but it gave me a clarity of heart. There was a difference in me yesterday as I did my communion rounds. More joy. More energy. More focus on the needs of others. A sense of emerging purpose.
Today’s Gospel
In today’s Gospel reading Jesus names the situation as he sent his disciples out—and as he sends us out today. “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”
As I continue on this Gospel reading today, it does not quite have the freshness of fullness of Sunday’s reading or of Nehemiah today. This is not quite between the marrow and the bone.
But it gives me food for thought and soul. It fills in and complements. It plows the earth God softened on Sunday.
“Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals”—no, I do not have to know everything that I need to know to start—nor do I need to worry about having what I need to do what God asks of me.
“Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’”—take what is given me in opportunities and circumstances and approach each situation was peace and friendliness.
“Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you…Do not move about from one house to another”—once I take on a project, see it through.
“Cure the sick and say to them, ‘The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.” –Do the work of healing, caring presence that God has already shown me how to do.
“Whatever town you enter and they do not receive you, got out into the streets and say, “The dust of your town that clings to our feet, even that we shake off against you.”—When things don’t work, let go and move on.
What Is God Saying to You Today?
So what in God’s Word is feeding you today? Sit with it. What scene does it cause you to enter? What words stand out to dig into your mind or heart? Sit with them.
God speaks as much to us today as he did to the Jews as they returned from exile.
If God’s word does not speak to you today…come back again tomorrow. Ask God to speak. He will. God has goodness to give you.
Prayer:
Lord, how rich is your Word! Fill me with its rich food and sweet drink today. Let me pray today’s Psalm:
R. (9ab) The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul;
The decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.
R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
The command of the LORD is clear,
enlightening the eye;
R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
The ordinances of the LORD are true,
all of them just.
R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
They are more precious than gold,
than a heap of purest gold;
Sweeter also than syrup
or honey from the comb.
R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
