Delight Of Your Eyes

Today’s first reading is hard to swallow for any man who has lost his wife from illness, accident, or old age.  Consider that Ezekiel said, “The word of the LORD came to me: Son of man, by a sudden blow I am taking away from you the delight of your eyes, but do not mourn or weep or shed any tears. Groan in silence, make no lament for the dead, bind on your turban, put your sandals on your feet, do not cover your beard, and do not eat the customary bread.  That evening my wife died…”

Few men would ever claim, “God purposefully took my wife away,” although some might simply say, “It was God’s will.”  I say, “Balderdash!”  I much prefer to believe, in a metaphorical way, that God weeps with me and shares my lament.   And why not?!   My wife and I were both made in the image and likeness of God, and through our marriage we were both of one flesh.  Like any good, constant, and compassionate companion, the Holy Spirit within shares my broken-heartedness and is the love within me offering strength and hope.

Yet, the meaning of this Old Testament passage is far deeper than it at first seems.   A comparison is made of the loss of a wife – “the delight of your eyes,” so says God to Ezekiel – in order to emphasize the personal nature and severity of the Jewish people’s loss, “the delight of their eyes:” the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem by the Babylonians (587 B.C.) and the people’s exile.  Ezekiel tries to convince the people that God’s terrible punishment was caused by their sins: “…You shall not mourn or weep, but you shall rot away because of your sins and groan one to another…”

That was okay for Ezekiel to say.  After all, he was a prophet trying to get his people to change their ways, and what better way than to threaten with: “God is ‘ticked off.’  Here comes the judge!  Here comes the punishment!”

God doesn’t rain down punishment for our sins.   If that were the case, we’d all being doing “hard time.”  It’s far more believable that we are all the delight of God’s “eyes,” God’s children with whom our forgiving God is well pleased despite our failings.      

Being the “delight” should make us take notice of today’s responsorial psalm: “You have forgotten God who gave you birth.”  If we forget our Creator, and we refuse to enter into a daily relationship with the Trinity (our image of God as Father, Son, & Holy Spirit), then we turn off de light.

Deacon David Pierce