(Liturgical Year A - 23rd Sunday)

Our first words to God on this day are a frank acknowledgement that He, to Whom we must rightly look for Mercy, can also be nothing but Just in dealing with His wayward creatures; He cannot contradict the Truth. It is worrying that, to some, God's Mercy means that He will 'turn a blind eye' to our sins; that we are bound to get to Heaven in the end, whatever happens. This is self-delusion, as God can only be 'true to Himself’; He cannot contradict His own essential Goodness and overlook deliberate and unrepented transgressions. Unlike us, He can never be anything but objective in His judgement, never confusing love with licence!
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Ezekiel underlines one's grave responsibility to correct error when we see it. We may well be met with hostility for our efforts; our love will be misunderstood and our warning may go unheeded, but our intention will not be overlooked by God.

The Prophet Ezekiel painted c.1609-1610 by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) and currently hanging in the Louvre

The Responsorial Psalm highlights our innate obstinacy, or hardness of heart, which can blind us to the gravity of an action; our fallen nature inclines more readily, as we know, to sin than to goodness which often involves self-denial. It is, sometimes, frighteningly easy to justify what we know in our heart to be wrong.

Saint Paul makes it very clear that God insists on the Commandments and our obedience to them out of Love. That is not, of course, what is so often portrayed by the media as love, which is often directly opposed to this Virtue! Promoting Love as God intends can make one very unpopular indeed, even among one's fellow Christians!
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Through the Alleluia verse we beg that Truth will underpin all that we do in life.
Jesus, in the Gospel, echoes Ezekiel's call for the correction of sinfulness among those around us. He also confirms that, in binding us to certain ways of conduct or, indeed in absolving us of any, the Pope and Bishops act with His Authority. 

Lord, grant us courage!