WORD 2day: Friday, 20th week in Ordinary time
August 21, 2020: Ezekiel 37: 1-14; Matthew 22: 34-40
The world is experiencing a time that is strange in all its sense and meaningless in its totality - an experience that can easily be called the Dry bone Syndrome. Everything seems suspicious, mechanical, lifeless, insensitive, dry, boring, meaningless, devoid of joy... coping with life seems a herculean task! There is a nostalgia spread all over, whether the so-called 'normalcy' of the past would ever return, and how soon! In all these there is the section of people who are worst affected - the poor, the migrants, the daily wagers and all those who are left without hope, exploited and targetted, denied their rights, robbed of their dignity and incessantly dehumanised. There is the entire lot of the people who are wondering what would happen next and what turn would events take tomorrow... the result is frustration, despair...the dry bone syndrome!
The only possible therapy to this is Hope Therapy... the few who still hold on to the right sense of values and priorities, appreciating life and the goodness of the other, with respect and dignity dealing with each other and caring for each other, refusing to be bogged down by conspiracy theories but at the same time not ignoring the genuine dangers that surround, they are the prophets that the Lord appoints today to prophesy to the dry bones... instill hope in the drooping humanity. They can do this because they are filled with genuine love - not with ego and the urge to prove oneself - but with genuine care for the other and sincere wish for the good of the other and of the humanity. That which we call love... that is the hope for the times!
Hope will never deceive us, says St. Paul. Beyond holding on to the hope given by these good-hearted, love-filled few, we are called to join that band - as hope givers!