Memory of the Church

Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Ezekiel 36,23-28

I am going to display the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am Yahweh -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- when in you I display my holiness before their eyes. For I shall take you from among the nations and gather you back from all the countries, and bring you home to your own country. I shall pour clean water over you and you will be cleansed; I shall cleanse you of all your filth and of all your foul idols. I shall give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you; I shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give you a heart of flesh instead. I shall put my spirit in you, and make you keep my laws, and respect and practise my judgements. You will live in the country which I gave your ancestors. You will be my people and I shall be your God.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The prophet reports God's word to his people: "I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them." Israel's sinful behaviour implicates God Himself, disfiguring and sullying His name. God will intervene and will purify Isarel and make his witness to the holiness of God and of His name. es and In the Our Father, Jesus taught us to say: "Hallowed be thy name." To sanctify God's name means to take part in God's holiness, to enter into communion with God, the almighty and merciful Lord. God wants to make us participants in his holiness, which is not only separation, because He is other than us, but at the same time is a communion of life and love. God makes some gestures that indicate this will of God for His dispersed people, deprived of the gift of the land, the sign of God's covenant. "I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land." This is the first gesture of God's love, the gathering together from dispersion, the reconstitution of the dispersed people in unity. "I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be cleaned from all your uncleanness." The encounter with the Lord makes men and women a people and purifies from the sin that separates from God and from the brothers and sisters. Finally: "A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." We need to be purified in our thoughts, feelings and actions, because sometimes even our hearts become hard and stony in front of others, especially in front of pain, suffering and the poor. The Lord with his Word gives us a heart of flesh, a heart like his, capable of compassion and mercy.