A turning point

In today’s first reading (Ezra 9:5-9) we hear a portion of the heart-wrenching prayer of Ezra, priest and scribe of God’s people at the time of the Restoration.

In this prayer, he is bitterly aware of his people’s sinfulness and their just punishment, but he is also gratefully aware of God’s mercy in bringing about their return from captivity.

So too should we never forget our sins and whatever unhappy consequences we have brought upon ourselves, yet we must always be even more mindful of the Lord’s mercy: that which he has shown us already in our lives and that which yet awaits us.

Although this part of Ezra’s prayer sounds like a turning point, Ezra and his people still had more work to do - more sinfulness from which they needed to disentangle and more suffering they had yet to endure – but there was also infinitely greater mercy still to come.

May God give us the grace to pass through our own turning points, no matter how long and difficult they may seem, so that we may share more fully in his eternal live through Jesus Christ our Lord.