Livestream/Mass Information for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 7,2024
14th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Sunday, July 7, 2024
Ezekiel, a priest in the Temple in Jerusalem, is the only prophet of the Old Testament called by the LORD to the prophetic office outside the land of Israel. Ezekiel, along with Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel, are the four major prophets of the O.T. This book records six visions of Ezekiel exiled in Babylon during the 22 years from 593-571 BC.
King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon extended his empire to the east and to the west. On his way to control the trade routes to Egypt he met with resistance in the kingdom of Judah. During the reign of King Jehoiachin of Judah (d. 598 B.C.) Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem. King Jehoiachin died before the siege ended and was succeeded by his son Jeconiah (d. after 562 B.C. in Babylon). In 597 Nebuchadnezzar (d. 562) conquered Jerusalem, exiled parts of the population and installed Zedekiah, Jeconiah’s uncle, as puppet king.
In this first deportation to Babylon went King Jeconiah, his court and thousands of workers. Among the exiles was Ezekiel. King Zedekiah (d. after 586 B.C. in Babylon) would rebel against the Babylonians in 586 B.C. This time Nebuchadnezzar took no prisoners. Jerusalem was burned, the Temple was destroyed and Zedekiah and everyone in Jerusalem except the poor forced to Babylon in exile and the land of Judah turned into a province of Babylon.
In the inaugural vision of Ezekiel (Ez. 1:1 – 3:27) God approaches Ezekiel as the divine warrior riding in His battle chariot. The chariot is drawn by four living creatures, each having four faces and four wings. St. Irenaeus (d. 202) wrote of these four faces as images describing the four Gospels: a man (Matthew), a lion (Mark) an ox (Luke) and an eagle (John). A similar description is found in Revelation 4:6-8.
“Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites” (Ez. 2:1) – this is the first of ninety-three times the LORD used this phrase to address Ezekiel. It is a title that emphasizes that Ezekiel is a man among men and something of a representative of humanity. The Lord Jesus used this phrase some eighty times to refer to Himself in the Gospels.
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