Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent Reflection

We are at the doorstep of the final part of Lent. Tomorrow begins Holy Week, inaugurated by Palm Sunday.  Choosing today’s readings, what does the Church want us to ponder as we enter the holiest time of the year?

The words of Ezekiel anticipate the restoration of the people being cleansed from their sins and their own land restored.  This connection between possessing / losing the land and righteousness / sinfulness is seen in the drama of Exodus when Moses led the people from slavery to freedom.  The gift of land to the Israelites was a consequence of their acceptance of and obedience to God’s Law.  We can trace this connection back to the story of Adam and Eve: they lost Eden because they turned away from God.  We might wonder whether this connection holds any relevance for us; after all, many of us do not have a deep connection to a specific piece of land in the same manner as the Israelites.  While we have not been given a piece of geographic land by God, we have been given “land,” albeit in an allegorical sense. Our bodies, our relationships, our entire milieu of relationships with the created world is our “land,” given to us by God.  We need not look very far to see that turning away from God brings tragic consequences in our lives, i.e., losing the land God has given to us.  While not every sin brings with it a loss of our bodies or relationships, there is a wounding, a deprivation of the goodness that was meant to exist.

We know God is not content to simply restore what was lost: He wants to elevate what - more precisely, who - has been restored to greater heights than before.  It is good to take stock of how we have brought ruin to our own land and how God, in His mercy, enters those ruins to restore what has been broken.