Monday Morning Meditation #93: Tell What You Have Been Told to Tell

I am pretty lazy this morning about writing the Monday Morning Meditation. It is an amazingly peaceful and relaxing morning. I did get up early to attend the 7:30 Mass at St. Anthony's Monastery, which is the story of my life this week (sorry that I have been missing the 7 Quick Takes Friday posts -- I have been traveling nearly constantly). I had set up a trip to NH for this week, related to a mission of mercy, which I cannot do here after all but which I can do long-distance. Go figure! I was going to stay with my brother in Wells, Maine since I always do that when I come home to New England, but he was sent this very week to California (my current abode). Go figure! So, I looked for an adequate substitute online and found this marvelous monastery, founded by Lithuanian Franciscans, and a Franciscan Guest House on its grounds, where we are staying. After returning from Mass and breakfast, I dug into Ezekiel further since I had made it only as far as the first verse of the first chapter last week. Chapters 1-3 are fascinating, and I am happy that we will be reading them soon in our Bible Study Group. While I have focused on verses 20 and 21 of Chapter 3, all of Chapters 1-3 is needed to understand them in context.

20 “Again, when a righteous person turns from their righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before them, they will die. Since you did not warn them, they will die for their sin. The righteous things that person did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for their blood.
21 But if you do warn the righteous person not to sin and they do not sin, they will surely live because they took warning, and you will have saved yourself.”

Reading: Ezekiel 3:20-21.

Meditation: I have no idea how people can interpret these strange visions that have appeared to the prophets throughout history. I had difficulty interpreting even the one, relatively simple, vision that was presented to me (see Goliath). It took months, someone else's help, and, finally, a locution. Ezekiel did, indeed, get some words to follow the vision, which helped him understand better.

The words are about telling people what God had said to tell them. More important, as one can see from the verses above, they are about obedience. The Israelites had ended up in their dire circumstances, taken from their promised land by the Babylonians, because they had been disobedient. God is now not only sending a warning to them but is also telling Ezekiel that he must deliver the message or be held accountable for not doing so.

Those verses took me back to my Goliath dilemma. I certainly did not want to deliver the message. I am sure, that my having done so, brought about in the minds of some the judgment I had wanted to avert: thinking of me as crazy. After all, it does sound a bit nuts to say to anyone, "God told me to tell you X." My son, Doah, does this frequently -- and I am sure, being as open as he is, he does get tasked -- but since he is mentally retarded, he is already labeled and does not know to worry about being labeled crazy. Maybe I should put all my education aside and become comfortable with Doah's approach. I think God sometimes can work with simple people much more easily than with complex ones because we latter put up all manner of barriers.

Contemplation: That is far as I can go with you this Monday morning. I now retire to private prayer to thank God for giving me the fortitude to deliver a message that made me uncomfortable. I will praise God for the many ways in which He prepared me for doing that. I will ask God for greater discernment at times of His tasking, and I will repent for any and all hesitations I have had and barriers (I think, only temporary) I have put before Him. Then I will move on to contemplation, my favorite part of the day, letting God take over the direction in which my relationship with Him moves.

I will leave you now to your prayer and contemplation. First, though, I would like to bring to your attention a Monday morning prayer post that you might enjoy:

Fr. Austin Fleming, priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and pastor in Concord, Massachusetts, posts a prayer each Monday morning that he calls "Monday Morning Offering." I enjoy his prayers very much. I think you also will find them inspirational. He has graciously given me permission to include a link to his blog on my Monday Morning Meditation posts. (During the week, he also posts great homilies and other thoughtful discussions. I enjoy reading those, too, as do readers of this blog who have taken the stroll over to his blog.)

For additional inspiration throughout the week, I would point out two sets of blogs: (1) the list of devotional blogs on my sidebar and (2) my blogroll, where I am following a number of inspirational priests and writers about spiritual matters. I learn so very much from all these people. I highly recommend them to you.