Ezekiel 39:25-29. God, after judging that the time of punishment is done, says that he will now restore the fortunes of Israel and have mercy on them. He will now forget their shame and treachery, and bring them back to their land where they will dwell securely. Through them, he has vindicated his holiness to all the nations and, because he sent his people into exile and now gathers them back, they shall know that he is their God. He will leave none of them astray, and will pour out his Spirit upon them in their homeland.

Here is our hope! Thank you, God, I needed this - to be reminded of the promise; of the ultimate resolution. I was just talking to a friend after Mass this morning and we were both saying how battle-weary we are, and there is no end in sight. Then I got home and I got this reading. He always gives me support when I need it! At some point, God will set things right. It is not for me (or my friend) to question how bad it is going to get before he does something. He knows how bad it is, and he is allowing it in order to, eventually, vindicate "his holiness in the sight of many nations."

In order for a world gone so far astray to recognize God's holiness, the problems that he fixes have to be pretty severe. People have to feel as burdened and weary as my friend and I feel. Only then will we all cry out to the only person who can truly set things right, and recognize that he is the one who solves the problems. Father Mike Schmitz said recently in his podcast that there can be no forgiveness without repentance. That is, we must realize we are acting badly, repent of our bad behavior, and resolve to try to not act that way again, before we can be truly forgiven and have it mean something. Someone, obviously, could say the words "I forgive you" to us, and mean them, but we will just keep hurting that person if we don't repent and try to change the thing we are doing that hurt them in the first place.

That is the lesson here, too. God's people need to repent of the sins that brought about the destruction of Jerusalem in the first place. The way to get them to their repentance is through suffering the consequences of their actions. Only God knows their hearts, only he knows when they will have suffered enough to know that he is the Lord their God when he saves them. But when that time comes, and it always does because God loves us and wants to bring us back, that will be the time of the joyful, hopeful, deliverance.

We are weary now, and still must stay in the fight, but (soon, I hope!) God will say "Now I will restore their fortunes." And we will then see that it has all been worth it!