First Reading - Ezekiel 37:1-14
Gospel - Matthew 22:34-40
In the first reading, Ezekiel is taken to a valley filled with dry bones. It is a powerful image of complete hopelessness. The bones are very dry, and humanly speaking, there is no possibility of life. God asks Ezekiel, “Can these bones live?” The prophet wisely answers, “Lord God, you alone know.”
God then commands him to speak to the bones. Gradually, the bones come together, flesh appears, and finally the breath of life enters them. What seemed completely dead becomes alive again.
The vision is a message of hope to a people who believed that their future was finished. God tells them, “I will put my spirit in you, and you shall live.” Their restoration will not come from their own strength but from the Spirit of God.
The Gospel then shows us what this new life looks like. A scholar asks Jesus which commandment is the greatest. Jesus answers by bringing everything back to love: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” And he immediately adds, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
For Jesus, these two commandments cannot be separated. Love of God and love of neighbor belong together. We cannot claim to love God while refusing to love the person standing before us.
This gives us an important connection between the two readings. The Spirit of God brings life to the dry bones, and the greatest evidence that God's Spirit is alive within us is the capacity to love.
Sometimes our hearts become like those dry bones. We may carry old hurts, resentments, disappointments, jealousy, or unforgiveness. We may have stopped speaking to someone, stopped trusting someone, or decided that we will never forgive again. Outwardly everything may appear normal, but inwardly the heart has become dry.
The Lord asks us today the same question he asked Ezekiel: “Can these bones live?” Can a broken relationship be restored? Can a wounded heart learn to love again? Can forgiveness become possible? Can a person who has lost hope begin again?
Our answer may be the same as Ezekiel's: “Lord God, you alone know.” But the good news is that God can breathe new life into what we think is beyond repair.
Yet this renewal requires something from us. We cannot ask God to fill us with his Spirit while deliberately closing our hearts to others. If we truly love God, that love must become visible in the way we treat people.
Jesus does not say, “Love your neighbor when your neighbor deserves it.” He simply says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” That includes the difficult person, the person who has hurt us, the person whose opinions differ from ours, and even the person we would rather avoid.
Love does not mean approving everything another person does. It means recognizing that the other person is also loved by God. It means refusing to allow hatred, resentment, or indifference to have the final word in our hearts.
Perhaps the greatest miracle God wants to perform in us is not something spectacular outside us but something quiet within us: to make a hard heart soft again, a wounded heart capable of forgiving, and a tired heart capable of loving.
The dry bones in Ezekiel's vision did not bring themselves back to life. God breathed his Spirit into them. In the same way, we need God's grace. We cannot manufacture Christian love simply by our own willpower. We need to pray: “Lord, breathe your Spirit into me. Give me a new heart. Teach me to love again.”
Today, then, let us bring before God whatever has become dry within us. Perhaps it is our prayer, our relationships, our enthusiasm, our hope, or our capacity to forgive. Let us believe that the God who made the dry bones live can also bring life to our hearts.
And let us remember the simple but demanding message of Jesus: the life God gives us is meant to become love. When we love God with our whole heart and love our neighbor as ourselves, the Spirit of God truly lives within us.
May the Lord breathe his Spirit into every dry place in our lives, restore what has become lifeless, and make our hearts once again places where his love can live and be shared with others.
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