17 August 2020

The word of the Lord came to me:
Mortal, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes;
yet you shall not mourn or weep, nor shall your tears run down.
Sigh, but not aloud; make no mourning for the dead.
Bind on your turban, and put your sandals on your feet;
do not cover your upper lip or eat the bread of mourners.
So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died.
And on the next morning I did as I was commanded.
From Ezekiel 24: 15-24 (NRSV)

This seems to be a particularly harrowing experience for Ezekiel that God will use to speak to him and to the people of Jerusalem. We do not know whether Ezekiel’s wife was close to death but it is clear that he loves her deeply – she is the “delight of (his) eyes”. And yet, the instruction from the Lord is that he is not to turn to the rituals and symbols that could give him comfort in his grief. He is to carry on as normal. When people ask, he is to say that the Lord has also lost his spouse – his beloved Jerusalem and they will soon want to mourn too – but be unable to.

• • Why are symbols and rituals so important at the time of a death?
  • How do people cope without them – for example, during the Covid-19 pandemic when people could not attend funerals?

Pray today for all those who have had to carry on without the rituals and symbols that could comfort them.