What are you and I doing for those who spiritually dead? Those who have not yet encountered Him? Who are living listless lives just struggling to get through the day. Who searches each day for meaning for their lives and peace of mind? What are we doing for these dry bones!? Nothing?
Can we then declare that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind? Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 1 John 4:20 “Oh but I do not hate them!” Isn’t feigned ignorance a form of hate? For you do not care enough if a person is alive or dead! His or her existence does not matter to you.
Love is not simply the warmth of companionship. It is the willing generosity of a parent to helpless young child. Son and daughter caring for aged parent/s. Wife to husband struggling with addiction. Husband to paralysed wife or critically ill. Loving care for the orphan, aged, homeless, poor and those in prison. Frequently reaching out to those who live in peripheries those urban, those social and those existential.
Loving the Lord our God is love put into action for Him and brethren. And He will surely breathe life into us and those whom we serve in His name. For through Him we have life to the full! Amen
First reading
Ezekiel 37:1-14
A vision of Israel’s death and resurrection
The hand of the Lord was laid on me, and he carried me away by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley, a valley full of bones. He made me walk up and down among them. There were vast quantities of these bones on the ground the whole length of the valley; and they were quite dried up. He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘You know, Lord.’ He said, ‘Prophesy over these bones. Say, “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. The Lord says this to these bones: I am now going to make the breath enter you, and you will live. I shall put sinews on you, I shall make flesh grow on you, I shall cover you with skin and give you breath, and you will live; and you will learn that I am the Lord.”’ I prophesied as I had been ordered. While I was prophesying, there was a noise, a sound of clattering; and the bones joined together. I looked, and saw that they were covered with sinews; flesh was growing on them and skin was covering them, but there was no breath in them. He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man. Say to the breath, “The Lord says this: Come from the four winds, breath; breathe on these dead; let them live!”’ I prophesied as he had ordered me, and the breath entered them; they came to life again and stood up on their feet, a great, an immense army.
Then he said, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole House of Israel. They keep saying, “Our bones are dried up, our hope has gone; we are as good as dead.” So prophesy. Say to them, “The Lord says this: I am now going to open your graves; I mean to raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel. And you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people. And I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live, and I shall resettle you on your own soil; and you will know that I, the Lord, have said and done this – it is the Lord who speaks.”’
Gospel
Matthew 22:34-40
The commandments of love
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees they got together and, to disconcert him, one of them put a question, ‘Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?’ Jesus said, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets also.’
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