The answer to dryness

Dry bones lying scattered across a great empty space.

That is sometimes how it feels to be in Church.

It is the driest of desert experiences - sometimes right in the midst of what others are calling a parish community.

That is sometimes how some people see the Church as a worldwide institution.

Dry bones lying scattered across a great empty space.

People talk of renewal - one way or another - but the dryness sometimes does not seem to go away, the hope never flowers, and we feel irretrievably, interminably lost.

Today's first reading (Ezekiel 37:1-14) has the answer to our dryness: the power of God himself.

The hand of the LORD came upon me,
and led me out in the Spirit of the LORD
and set me in the center of the plain,
which was now filled with bones.

He made me walk among the bones in every direction
so that I saw how many they were
on the surface of the plain.
How dry they were!

He asked me:
Son of man, can these bones come to life?
I answered, "Lord GOD, you alone know that."

Then he said to me:
Prophesy over these bones,
and say to them:
Dry bones,
hear the word of the LORD!

Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones:

See! I will bring spirit into you,
that you may come to life.
I will put sinews upon you,
make flesh grow over you,
cover you with skin,
and put spirit in you
so that you may come to life
and know that I am the LORD.


I prophesied as I had been told,
and even as I was prophesying
I heard a noise;
it was a rattling as the bones came together,
bone joining bone.
I saw the sinews and the flesh come upon them,
and the skin cover them,
but there was no spirit in them.

Then the LORD said to me:
Prophesy to the spirit,
prophesy, son of man,
and say to the spirit:
Thus says the Lord GOD:

From the four winds come, O spirit,
and breathe into these slain
that they may come to life.

I prophesied as he told me,
and the spirit came into them;
they came alive and stood upright,
a vast army.

Then he said to me:
Son of man, these bones
are the whole house of Israel.

They have been saying,
“Our bones are dried up,
our hope is lost,
and we are cut off.”

Therefore, prophesy
and say to them:
Thus says the Lord GOD:

O my people,
I will open your graves
and have you rise from them,
and bring you back to the land of Israel.
Then you shall know that I am the LORD,
when I open your graves
and have you rise from them,
O my people!

I will put my spirit in you
that you may live,
and I will settle you upon your land;
thus you shall know
that I am the LORD.

I have promised,
and I will do it,
says the LORD.

We need to remain faithful,
for the Lord Jesus Christ remains faithful to his people,
to His Church.

Veni Sancte Spiritus