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March 6, 2024In the first reading there is a very dire situation happening, the people of Israel are being led away in exile. Everything has been destroyed. The temple, the castles, the city, everything has been plundered. They were led away to be exiled for seventy years in a land foreign to them.
There in Babylon, they were asked to sing one of the songs they would sing in their homeland, but how could they sing the songs of the Lord in a foreign land? The Israelites lived in exile until the Lord sent Cyrus, a Persian king, to allow them to come back to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple, to reclaim their lives. This reading provides a powerful image of the state of the world today for many people who are also in exile.
Today this exile is no longer in a foreign land, it is an exile of the faith. Many people are in exile because they want to be in such exile. It is self-imposed. And the results of the exile are the same as what happened to the people of Israel. They have been plundered in their lives. They have been destroyed in their human dignity. Their temple (their body) has been razed to the ground. Their enemies [have] burnt the house of God, their faith. Their precious dignity, like the precious objects in the temple, has been disfigured. And like mentioned in the reading, those who were spared where taken away to be servants of the king of the Chaldeans. These people are enslaved by sin and continue to serve the master of this world. They are reduced, they are plundered, they are destroyed by choice. However, the plan of God is not for destruction. In another part of the bible in Isaiah 45:18 it states that God did not establish the world to be a waste, an empty desert, but formed it to be lived in. God does not want the destruction of the sinner, but the conversion. Many people want to live in exile and do so because of their choices in life.
God loves the world and loves the sinner (not the sin) and wants for the sinner to come back to His original plan of love. God is rich in mercy and wants to bring back the people from their exile. However, many people persist in wanting to be in self-exile and continue to want to live in darkness. “For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed” (Jn. 3:20-21). God created everyone to do “good” for “we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works” (Ephesians 2:10). We are called to be restored to our original dignity as children of God, and to no longer live in darkness of sin. This Lenten season is an opportunity to come back home, to be restored to our original place of life. The good works we will do can bring us back to the homeland. If we journey back to where we belong, God will show us “the immeasurable riches of His grace in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). This Lent may we journey back from exile by doing good works of purification. This Lent may the light of Christ grow so that we may be restored to our original dignity as children of God.