Readings:
Ezekiel 24:15-24
Matthew 19:16-22
Reflection:
There are times when actions speak louder than words. Ezekiel is called to model what profound faith and trust in God looks like when his wife dies. Rather than follow all the customary practices that would accompany the death of a spouse, God instructs him to act as if nothing had happened. We speak about putting on a brave face – this is precisely what Ezekiel must do. His actions are a living parable for his contemporaries as they struggle with the grief of exile and the loss of everything that was precious to them. Like them, he is mourning and deeply grieving, but his actions are a prompt for others not to lose hope in God but to carry on in faith. Stripped of everything they loved, they are called to rediscover that God is the source of their life.
The rich young man faces the challenge of letting go of the security that comes with wealth to follow Jesus. It is not that he is not living a good and exemplary life, but is he prepared to take the radical step of stripping away the security he finds in wealth and become a disciple? Both readings today are profoundly challenging – either having faith when everything is stripped away from us or letting go of what holds us back from following Jesus as disciples.
Fr. Chris Monaghan CP, lectures in the New Testament and is President of Yarra Theological Union. He is a member of the Passionist community of Holy Cross in Templestowe.