Monday in the 26th Week of Ordinary Time, September 27, 2021

Zechariah 8:1-8

This word of the Lord of hosts came: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am intensely jealous for Zion, stirred to jealous wrath for her. Thus says the Lord: I will return to Zion, and I will dwell within Jerusalem; Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Old men and old women, each with staff in hand because of old age, shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem. The city shall be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Even if this should seem impossible in the eyes of the remnant of this people, shall it in those days be impossible in my eyes also, says the Lord of hosts? Thus says the Lord of hosts: Lo, I will rescue my people from the land of the rising sun, and from the land of the setting sun. I will bring them back to dwell within Jerusalem. They shall be my people, and I will be their God, with faithfulness and justice.

When Zechariah is the First Reading, Advent can’t be far away.

“I am intensely jealous for Zion, stirred to jealous wrath for her.”  This reading can be understood as the Lord speaking about the Jews in exile in Babylon and his desire to bring them back to Israel, but also as the Lord speaking about a believer who has sinned and repented.  In this verse, for instance, the Lord declares that he is “stirred to jealous wrath” for the repentant Christian: he will protect this lost sheep who has returned.  He will hold it tightly in his arms lest the devil seek to lure it back to disaster.  “I will return to Zion, and I will dwell within Jerusalem.”  Almighty God speaks of his intention to be with his people when they return, and also to fill the repentant sinner with his grace and to dwell once again on the throne of his heart.  “Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain.”  The Lord even seems nostalgic in this verse for his relationship with the repentant one before the sin, and is eager to resume it.  “Old men and old women, each with staff in hand because of old age, shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem.”  That is, sense will return to the sinner who has come back.  “The city shall be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.”  Moral and spiritual strength will return, and a certain innocence, after the priest grants him absolution.

“Even if this should seem impossible in the eyes of the remnant of this people, shall it in those days be impossible in my eyes also, says the Lord of hosts?”  After the Babylonian army destroyed Jerusalem, about sixty years before Zechariah uttered this prophecy, a large number of its citizens were driven into exile, but many remained behind.  There were two “remnants” then, and for both, return seemed impossible.  The one group who remained looked at the ruins of the city and its torn-down walls and saw that there was nothing for the exiles to come back to.  The exiles saw no end in sight to their desperate situation.  But with God, all things are possible.  Similarly, a person who has purposely broken God’s law devastates his own soul and pulls down the walls of grace that protect him from evil.  It seems impossible that he could ever be restored.  And he cannot be, by his own efforts.  Only grace can do this.  “Lo, I will rescue my people from the land of the rising sun, and from the land of the setting sun.”  Whatever the sin and no matter how serious, God can rescue the fallen soul at the slightest prayer for help.  “I will bring them back to dwell within Jerusalem.  They shall be my people, and I will be their God, with faithfulness and justice.”  God has more ardent desire to restore his people than they are to be restored.  It is quite amazing to hear the Infinite God speaking like this.  But so desirous is he to gather our souls in his embrace that he would even sacrifice his Son for them.