Ezekiel 33:7-9, Matthew 18:15-20
In the first reading today, God is speaking to Ezekiel. I find the reading difficult to understand. I also find it filled with thoughts of hopelessness. It seems to be about correcting the other person, the wicked one, and about being responsible for that person’s death if the individual’s behavior does not change. Hard sayings. We need to know, however, that Ezekiel is one of 8,500 people from Palestine who are in exile in Babylon. It is the year 587 BC, the Babylonian Exile. As a fellow-exile, Ezekiel sees his role as one of a watchman, a familiar figure to this day at hotels, office buildings, airports and banks. The task is ever so simple — to warn of the approach of any danger or threat. In exile, Ezekiel and the people had experienced the terrible collapse of institutions. All that the prophet could do was to speak to the individual, warning against any behavior that would harm that individual or others. Ezekiel had to protect the community. God had spoken to Ezekiel.
Ezekiel is the appointed watchman for the House of Israel. I find myself worrying about who the watchmen are in the federal government these days who are watching out for the good of the community. So many of them have been put out of the room, fired from their jobs, no longer there to be watchmen.
Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel today sounds like Ezekiel, different from how Jesus usually sounds. We are accustomed to hearing Jesus encourage his disciples to accept the tax collector or the non-Jewish person. Now Matthew has Jesus speaking of tax collectors and Gentiles as undesirable. Yet again, it is for the good of the community. Jesus wants the people to do something about any broken relationships. Jesus’ Father in heaven has spoken to him. God has spoken to Jesus.
There is yet another group of exiles today: undocumented persons in the United States who have been living and working here for years and who are being deported in a seemingly random fashion by the U.S. government. Then there are the children, now adults, brought here by their parents, some of whom know little or nothing about the country in which they were born, who are being deported by the U.S. government.
Ezekiel and Jesus remind us that we are responsible for the well-being of the community. We feel, perhaps, somewhat helpless in being responsible for the refugees and immigrants or for the government. But various ones, here at the Motherhouse and in the larger Loretto Community are acting: writing letters, calling congressmen, standing on street corners, working with refugees, going to the Mexican/U.S. border and holding all suffering people in prayer. Many in Loretto are working on committees, thinking about what can happen in the future. I try to tell myself, there is hope. God is speaking to us.
