28 September 2014
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
God sounds a little like an exasperated parent in today’s first reading: “House of Israel, grow up! When will you learn that you have to live with the consequences of your actions?” (Are we listening?)At the time of the priest-prophet Ezekiel (6th c. BC) it was widely believed that God punished a people’s sinfulness through several generations. This notion of children suffering for the sins of their parents was originally found in Exodus (20:5). But Ezekiel turns this conviction on its head because he knows it only serves to give the exiled people another excuse to blame their sinfulness on someone else. It is time for Israel to take personal responsibility for its actions, to understand that the exile and its many devastating consequences are the result of its own behaviors.
Personal responsibility seems to have gone out of style these days as well. It is much easier to pass the buck, to whine about God being unfair, or even to say, “It’s the fault of my parents that I am this way!” The Lord poses a simple question to the House of Israel, and to us: “Are not your ways unfair?”
Last week we considered the prophet Isaiah’s notion of “our ways” in terms of our unforgiving spirits. Today’s reading asks us to consider that “our ways” are ways that estrange us from God. But if we accept that, if we own and admit to our wrongdoings and are reconciled to the Lord with a contrite and humbled heart, we free ourselves to deal constructively with the consequences.
Do we to accept personal responsibility for our lives and our behaviors? Is it our turn to hear God saying, “Oh, grow up”?
