In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
In today’s brief Gospel, if we read it superficially, we come away with a quaint and softly comforting picture familiar from dated religious art of mediocre quality: a non-threatening Jesus sits amid the multitudes, doling out healings freely to grateful supplicants.
The contrast between this imagined scene and the scriptural picture of life of the holy prophet Ezekiel, whom we commemorate today, could not be greater.
St. Ezekiel’s book begins with a bizarre and frightening vision of the Lord’s chariot-throne and its attendants. The angelic throne and angelic attendants are not golden-haired youths or chubby baby-like cherubs, however: they are beyond firm description, seeming to be part man, part machine, part animal, part mineral. And this is not the prophet’s only encounter with such beings.
Moreover, his own prophetic activities were strange and disturbing to the people around him: he builds miniature mud and brick constructs and destroys them, lies in place on his side for months, cuts off potions of his hair and burns them.
At the core of the righteous Ezekiel’s commission from the Lord is this command:
Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, `You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you will have saved your life.
The holy prophet is called, not to modify his message to fit his audience or attract disciples or grow his movement, but rather to faithfully bear witness to the Lord, no matter how bizarre his actions must become or how strident his words of warning need to be.
As I have said, all of this appears to be something very different from the ministry of the Lord as we glimpse it in today’s Gospel. We may wish to see in this contrast a difference between the Old and New Testaments: the harsh prophet with strange visions is out with the Old, a non-judgmental therapeutic Jesus is in with the New.
Such a view, of course, would be wrong. Because in fact, as Jesus sat on that mountain side healing the crowds, he was, in effect, passing judgment. And as Ezekiel announced the Lord’s impending wrath, he was showing mercy.
After all, as we hear during Holy Week services especially, all those healings became a testimony against the people who ultimately asked for Christ to be crucified. And the warnings of Ezekiel were always an invitation for the faithful people to repent, put away their transgressions, and flee the destruction to come.
Ultimately, the Lord’s justice and mercy are inseparable. ‘The name of thy justice is mercy,’ as St. Romanus writes in his kontakion for another prophet, St. Elijah whom we commemorated yesterday.
God’s goodness is mercy if we accept it; it is judgment if we reject it. The sacred character of human freedom remains inviolate—that is how much God loves us. He truly wanted us to be able to make a choice, to make a difference, to work together with him—in a very small way—in order to redeem the world. And that cooperation begins with the choice to redeem ourselves, to accept the mercy of the Lord.
Accepting the Lord’s mercy, however, is not the cheery fancy communicated by pastel-colored, soft-focus paintings of Jesus healing the multitude. Accepting the Lord’s mercy means confronting our sins, owning them, and struggling to change. Accepting the Lord’s mercy, in other words, entails humility, repentance, and ascetic struggle.
These are the two ways set before every human being: life or death, renewal or destruction, salvation or damnation. The holy prophet Ezekiel, as faithful watchman, has done his part: he has presented us with the choice. The Lord Jesus Christ, during the days of his flesh, throughout his ministry, did the same: he became the sign which was spoken against, just as St. Simeon the God-receiver once predicted. With his miracles and teaching, he showed us an image of the life to come and showed us the way to reach that life. But his prophecies also indicated the terrible fate that awaits those who reject the Son of Man, and his Passion revealed just how many did reject him, despite of all his benefits.
And so what choice shall we make? Not just for a moment, but each day and moment of our lives? The cities and nations of this world are passing away, together with all the forms and ways of this world. We always teeter at the edge of destruction, as it were. Each of our lives blossoms like a flower and then disappears, or flourishes like grass on the housetop only to wither quickly away. We do not know when the end will come.
But the Lord, through his apostles and prophets, his priests and patriarchs, shows us a way beyond this mortal life. If we humble ourselves, repent, and struggle, we can ready ourselves every day both for the end of this life and for the life to come. By the grace of God, it remains within our power, each day of our lives, to choose life and mercy and healing, and to reject death and condemnation and pride.
Through the prayers of the holy prophet Ezekiel, may we always hear the word of the Lord and turn away from all our transgressions, abiding in humility, repentance, and struggle throughout the days of our life, becoming, through our cooperation with the infinite love of God, worthy of the kingdom that is coming, the kingdom beyond all times and worlds, the kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, unto ages of ages Amen.
Holy prophet Ezekiel, pray to God for us!