Tuesday of the
Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
(Ezekiel 2:8-3:4; Matthew 18:1-5.10.12-14)
An old labor organizer once told the story of how a
worker approached him one day saying that a preacher was talking to other
workers. The organizer said that the
workers needed to have the fear of God put into them. The worker responded that the preacher was
not talking about the workers’ faults but the organizer’s faults. The organizer then went to investigate. Like the labor organizer the prophet Ezekiel
realizes the importance of hearing the word of God.
Ezekiel is given a directive to eat the scroll; that is,
he is to take in the word of God. It is
sweet to the taste, not because it tells of destruction for the people but
because it ends in the people becoming purer, better, more like God
Himself. There is a glimpse of this in
the gospel today. Jesus’ parable speaks
of a shepherd who goes in search of the lost sheep. The shepherd is God returning the wayward to
the path of goodness.
We might find some satisfaction in preaching to people
about their sins. But that may be a sign
that we are sinfully proud and contemptuous.
Instead of self-righteously criticizing others, we need to develop the
habit of praying for others before we speak to them. And when we talk with them, we should be
ready to explain why we see their actions as injurious. In these ways the word of God grows in both
them and us.
