Tuesday of Week 20 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Ezekiel 28:1-10

The message of today’s reading is very clear and as relevant now as it was then. Tyre was a Phoenician city on the coast of the Mediterranean in what is now Lebanon. The Phoenicians were famous in ancient times as traders and for their skill in seafaring. It is not fully clear whether Ezekiel is personally attacking King Ittobaal, ruler of Tyre at the time, or the whole city for placing itself on the same level as God.

The city bases this claim on its collective wisdom. Says the prophet rather mockingly:

You are indeed wiser than Daniel…

This claimed wisdom was, as believed, the source of the city’s enormous wealth and power. Daniel, like Solomon, was a byword for wisdom in the Old Testament. This does not so much allude to the Daniel who is the hero of Daniel chapters 1-12, but rather to the Daniel of chapter 13 (in many translations), who solved the case of the alleged adultery of Susanna (see Sus 1:47-64 in the NRSVue Bible).

However, the prophet says, with growing wealth and power has come increasing pride and arrogance, a sense of omnipotence. The empty base of this sense of security will soon be shattered when the city is attacked by foreigners who are even more powerful—referring to the Babylonians. They will bring death and destruction. Then, what will become of the claims to divine power?

Says God through his prophet:

…you are but a mortal and no god,
[helpless] in the hands of those who pierce you…

They will die the same death as the “uncircumcised”, the most uncivilised of barbarians. (Note that the Phoenicians, like the Israelites and the Egyptians, practised circumcision.)

Times and attitudes have not changed very much. There are still people in our own time and in our own society who believe that a high level of education, wealth and power give a kind of invincibility. It includes those who have such great wealth and power and those who struggle all their lives to get some of it. With money, anything can be bought—everyone has their price.

Yet, the lives of all, rich and poor, educated and illiterate, powerful and marginalised, can be snuffed out in the twinkling of an eye. But our destiny is in other hands, and the sooner we realise that the better for our happiness and peace of mind.

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Monday of Week 20 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Ezekiel 24:15-24

In today’s reading, the death of the prophet’s wife becomes a symbol of how the people are to respond to the loss of their Temple. God warns Ezekiel that he is going to lose his wife, the “delight of [his] eyes”, through sudden illness and death. She would be taken away in “one blow”, some swiftly fatal disease, perhaps some form of plague.

However, when it happens, Ezekiel is to display none of the traditional forms of mourning, but is to suffer his loss privately. He is not to mourn or weep. He is to “groan quietly” in the silence of his own heart, not to lament the dead. He is to keep his turban fastened (it was normal for the mourner to uncover his head and put dust on it). He is to keep his sandals on and not to cover his beard (a gesture of shame or uncleanness). Nor is he to eat the customary bread, perhaps referring to a funeral meal in which neighbours would take part as an expression of sympathy and commiseration.

That very evening his wife died and Ezekiel told the people what he had been instructed to do. Not surprisingly, the people wanted to know the meaning of this rather unusual and unfeeling behaviour. Ezekiel then passes on the message that God had given him for the people.

The beloved sanctuary of God, the Temple: “the pride of your power, the delight of your eyes, and your heart’s desire”, is about to be desecrated, i.e. burnt down by Nebuchadnezzar. When it happens, the people are to do what Ezekiel did after the death of his wife. This does not mean that the citizens of Jerusalem are forbidden to lament their sins, but that there will simply be no time for mourning; the catastrophe will be too sudden and cataclysmic. Many, in fact, will simply be cut down by the Babylonian invaders. It will be the punishment for the people’s immorality and idolatries.

Ezekiel and his behaviour over the death of his wife are to be a sign for the people:

Thus Ezekiel shall be a sign to you; you shall do just as he has done. When this comes, then you shall know that I am the Lord God.

It is not the Temple they are to mourn for, but for themselves and their failure to recognise that Yahweh is Lord. The loss of a building is something far less significant than the loss of their own integrity and wholeness.

Obviously, there is no teaching here to discourage people from mourning the loss of loved ones. Rather, the lesson is that we can become so focused on these losses that we fail to see how much should be mourned in our own lives because of our repeated failures in our relationships with God and our living neighbours.

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