(Please read this Scripture passage first, before the homily.)
I want you to meet Ezekiel. He was a flamboyant prophet. He was a priest of the tribe of Levi. He described his visions, using the first person singular pronoun. He saw and described fantastic sights: cherubim and thrones, blood and gore. He sometimes engaged in outrageous conduct.
Today’s reading tells of the Lord’s departure from Jerusalem and the slaughter of people in the temple and city. The Lord did not sneak away from the temple. Rather God left it in procession with full solemnity. “I am out of here!” God said is so many words and actions. It was quite a disaster when God left.
With the departure of God, there was no restrain on the violence afflicting the people. True is was that God had marked some people with the “Thau” or “X” to spare them from the slaughter, but the slaughter was devastating to the consciousness of the people.
Since we have not experienced such a violent and catastrophic eviction from our homes, we may have a hard time comprehending the loss. In our history, however, we have many times afflicted others with catastrophic loss of home and homeland. The Trail of Tears comes to mind when we moved the Cherokee from Florida to Oklahoma. The theft of African blacks for slavery in the United States is another catastrophic removal of people from their homes. We have witnessed in our lifetime many evictions from home and country. The Displaced Persons, who later came to be known as Palestinians, were expelled from their homeland after the formation of the State of Israel. Refugees from many places and countries have fled their homelands in the face of drought, poverty and violence in search of safe haven, jobs, security, and life.
These have experienced in graphic detail what the ancient Israelites experienced in the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of their temple. Such was the depth of the experience, that it took all the extravagant gestures, actions and words of the prophet Ezekiel to reach the hearts and minds of the exiles and refugees.
Ezekiel was the prophet for the hard task of bringing God’s word to a people swamped into grief by the catastrophic loss of all they held dear. Maybe I should not have described him as flamboyant, but his actions had to be as drastic as the loss the people had experienced. I invite you to read the entire book of the prophet Ezekiel this week and next. In think you will find it strange, fascinating, graphic, interesting and consoling. I hope that God’s gift of peace will remain with us.