Following the sudden downfall of President Assad of Syria last December, there were reports of Syrian exiles flocking back to their homeland from neighbouring countries such as Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. After a 13-year-long civil war and oppression by the brutal regime, their hopes were high for their country to become a better place. It was different for Syrian refugees in continental Europe. Reportedly, they were more cautious and suspicious of those who had taken power in Syria. Almost certainly, other factors were the distance and also the life stability they had established in their new homes abroad. For them, leaving all that behind was a much higher-stakes decision than for those who had lived just across the Syrian border. This story made the headlines in recent weeks, but it’s only the latest incarnation of a similar turn of events and dilemmas faced by people over the millennia. One took place around the same geographical area some 2,600 years ago, and it’s the backstory of today’s first reading.
Following the Babylonian Empire’s conquest of the kingdom of Judah in the 6th century BC, several deportations of the Jews to Babylon took place. They were banned from returning to their homeland for up to seventy years until 538 BC, when the Persian conqueror of Babylonia, Cyrus the Great, formally permitted them to return to Palestine. Their enthusiasm was somehow tempered for a number of reasons. Firstly, having lived in Babylon for so long, many of them had reached life stability and put their roots down. Secondly, there was a massive, hostile desert between Babylon and Jerusalem; travelling across it was very dangerous, while the alternative route along the Euphrates River and then southward across Syria was about 900 miles long, even by modern standards. Thirdly, there was very little to return to. Jerusalem had been ransacked and destroyed by the Babylonians, and since then, it had lain in ruins. Lastly, as nature abhors a void, there were new inhabitants in the area who wouldn’t and didn’t welcome the returnees. So, despite the exiles’ long-held desire to return to their homeland, not many decided to go when it was permissible: a trickle rather than a deluge. Those who did soon found life in Jerusalem very hard and challenging in many ways. The biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah are testimonies of their hardship.
What do people do to alleviate their problems? Usually, the first step is to search for possible solutions, often by seeking advice in one way or another. I have recently read that among Gen Z, astrology is trending as the way to lift their uncertainty and anxiety about their future. The trouble-stricken Jewish returnees reached for something much better and more reliable: “They told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had given to Israel.” (Nehemiah 8:1) In other words, they wanted to hear the word of God in order to know what to do. This is where today’s first reading starts.
There are a few interesting elements in this story. I’ve just mentioned the first one (although omitted in today’s passage): the event was organised at the people’s request. They had the right attitude: “The ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.” Their respect was also demonstrated through their body language and solemn proceedings. They were listening to the Torah, the first five books of our Old Testament. Most of its content consisted of the journey of the Israelites from the slavery of Egypt to the Promised Land; a subject that was hardly applicable directly to the lives of the audience. Thus, “Ezra and the Levites read from the book […] clearly, and they gave the meaning, so that the people understood the reading.” One of the most prevalent misconceptions about the Bible – and a common source of disappointment to its first-time readers – is to treat it as a self-improvement manual offering ready-made, simplistic solutions to complex problems. In its current literary form, the Bible is a snapshot of a distant language, mindset and culture virtually foreign to us. But when we study it, we will experience that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12-13) Yes, it requires effort and help, but I can tell you it’s worth it. It’s similar to my experience of learning English. It was quite a long process, frustrating and challenging in equal measure. But having learnt it, a whole new world has opened up to me, a wealth of knowledge previously inaccessible in my rather niche native language.
Pope Francis established the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time as a special day to celebrate, study, and disseminate the Word of God. It would be a great mistake to limit it to one Sunday only. Since last year’s summer holidays, in Inverurie our Junior and Senior Youth Groups have been studying the Bible in their respective age-appropriate courses. We will be continuing to do so for a while – the Bible is, admittedly, quite a hefty volume. Recently, the Dominican Sisters offered a couple of online Bible studies; they were advertised in our parish newsletter. We will have a series of Lenten Talks on the Lord’s Prayer, deeply rooted in the Bible. Many high-quality podcasts and online resources are available for you to study at your leisure. That would be a much better use of your time than depression-inducing, doom-scrolling social media feeds or watching mind-numbing TV shows and videos. In today’s first reading, many of the audience were moved to tears in reaction to what they had heard. Such an honest assessment of their lives, perhaps gloomy at first, helped them to find a strong sense of direction of travel. So, their leaders urged them and us: “Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”