If you read slowly through the 12 verses of the first reading for today's liturgy, you may wonder what Ezekiel's prophetic words and his peculiar actions might mean for me today? It is an honest question but a necessary question if you wish to try understanding why God so inspired the prophet to write as he did.
Ezekiel is told by God to perform a mime for the people. It is strange for them ... because it speaks of loss, of blindness, of failure, etc.. Ezekiel is teaching that their King, Zedekiah, will be blinded and taken along with the people into exile in Babylon. We know from history that this happened when King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and forced the people into exile. The blindness of Zedekiah represents the blindness of the people to God's will for them.
For us today this part of Ezekiel's writings serve as a reminder to us that we need to have eyes and ears to hear the Word of God that is spoken to us ... perhaps in strange and unexpected ways. It is a signal to each person today to consider carefully how we are living our lives in light of God's will for us. It is so easy, unfortunately, for us to fall into a blindness where we neither see nor hear the will of God for us.
This reading challenges us to pray to God that we might have eyes and ears that enable us to know where it is that God is calling us. Again, this is not always easy because we entered this life of our with the reality of Original Sin in our very being. It is so easy to say, "Of course, I want to do the will of God with my life for him." However, each of us knows well that at the same time the power of evil is both strong and conniving and we have weaknesses. We need to pray each day "Lord, open my eyes and ears to know your will."
