27/09/2023

I do not have a deep knowledge of Scripture and I try to approach each of the readings as it comes. Sometimes I am prompted, usually by something that I cannot understand, to check the context. This is when Wikipedia is a wonder to be acknowledged with thanks to God, and with a donation that reflects its value to all of us who want to continue learning all our lives.

In today's reading, the Old Testament becomes more than the history of the place of Israel in God's Providence. Today we have to listen to the prayer that comes out of Ezra's deep meditation into his relationship with God. Ezra has been tormented by the knowledge of how many of the people of God have been contaminated by intermarriage with non-Jews.  

He knows that all of them have suffered because of these sins but that the contract between God and Moses is still the only way they have of knowing God. It is their racial heritage that has to be preserved for only the descendants of those who came out of Egypt with Moses can be the inheritors of the Covenant and by following the Law of Moses they are truly the people of God.

Our Lord condemned the Pharisees of his day for their slavish adherence to their "father Abraham" and to the Law of Moses. The "Word became flesh and dwelt among us" to show us the way which had been lost. 

Today we can be sure that Jesus preached to all nations and that his kingdom is not of this world. Ezra returned to Jerusalem with what he considered to be one race and the wealth that made all the temples of the world into the central banks of all the Empires of the world before the birth of Our Saviour.

This is the Mammon that Jesus drove out of Herod's Temple but is still with us as the "Patrimony of Peter" that has hamstrung the Vicar of Christ since the second century.

Dear Lord you know the limits of human thinking. My reflections about your will for mankind are limited by my capacity. I have no problem in recognising both my limitations and my sins but I do hope that I am raising my mind and my heart to you. Forgive me my sins and help me to recognise your ways. May Mary who stayed with you until your death continue to plead for the Mercy that is real human blood pouring from a real human corpse on Calvary and the same Body and Blood, the Holy Eucharist on the Altar. May my sins and the sins of all the world be forgiven so that we can atone to receive with hope the punishment that you decide for us. Lord forgive us our trespasses. Amen