Monday, XXV Week of Ordinary Time
(Ezra 1)
There is hardly anything but tension today between Iran (modern Persia) and Israel (the Jewish state that incorporates most of the former Kingdoms of Judah and of Israel). The first reading from the prophet Ezra reminds us that relations were not always strained. In fact, with a history so long that it astounds the mind, Iran and Israel have had many ups and downs together. The peak recounted in our reading shows the king of Persia promoting the reestablishment of the Temple, the center of Jewish life.
Although the events narrated in the reading take place four hundred years before Christ, we Christians still read them as prefatory to his coming. The recognition of the Jewish God by a foreign king and the cooperation of different peoples to rebuild a great monument to that God anticipate the age of Jesus. With the push still being generated by his paschal experience people at the ends of the earth have come to praise God’s name. Likewise, individual Christians everywhere form new temples created through the love which the Holy Spirit deposits in their hearts.
We can also read the text as a sign of hope in this time of near crisis. Iranian leaders have threatened to drive Israel into the sea. But Israel has the military power to demolish Iran which it swaggers from time to time. If war breaks out between the two powers, there can hardly be a prosperous future for both nations. Therefore, we pray that the fraternity between the two peoples demonstrated in the reading reappears without armed hostilities.
