Eventide & Altar

They wandered in the desert in a trackless waste, finding no way to a city to live in. Hungry and thirsty, their life was wasting away. They cried to the Lord in their distress and he rescued them. He led them on a straight road to a city to live in.

This is what the redeemed say after the bones have come to life: the memory of the wasteland and the gratitude for what came after. Not a denial that the desert was real. A testimony that it was not the end.

Ezekiel's honest answer is the beginning of everything: Lord God, you alone know. He does not perform certainty he does not have. He sees the bones, acknowledges how dry they are, and says what is true: I don't know if this can live. Only you know. And God says: that is enough. Prophesy.

At this point in life, you have probably stood in more than one valley of dry bones. The marriage that seemed finished. The child who seemed gone. The faith that seemed to have gone cold. The ministry that looked like it had accomplished nothing. And you have probably seen - or are still waiting to see - the rattling that precedes the rising.

The greatest commandment is love. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. The love Ezekiel is asked to exercise in the valley is that love: prophesying before the evidence, trusting the God whose answer to the question is not yes but go ahead and speak.

The Sorrowful Mysteries are the love that went all the way to the grave - and the grave that became the valley the spirit entered. Pray them for whoever in your life is in the dry bones part, not yet at the vast army.

• For those who have wandered in the desert, their life wasting away, who cried to the Lord in their distress - for the city they are still looking for, we pray to the Lord.
• For the dry-bone situations we have given up prophesying over, that the Lord would give us back the word to speak before the evidence arrives, we pray to the Lord.
• On this feast of Pius X, for the children who have come to the Eucharist early and often, in gratitude for what the bread has already done in them, we pray to the Lord.

Name the valley of dry bones in your life or in someone you love. Give the honest answer: Lord God, you alone know if these bones can come to life. Then receive the command: prophesy. Say what God has promised over the thing that looks dead. The rattling comes before the rising.