Ezekiel 14:21. "For thus says the Lord God: How much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four sore acts of judgment, sword, famine, evil beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast!" "How much more than what," I wondered when I read this, so I looked back. In prior verses God walks Ezekiel through each one of these four acts of judgment, saying when He sends only one due to a land's faithlessness, the people tend to not change, and not to listen to prophets. Even if "Noah, Daniel, and Job were in [that place], they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness." (Ezekiel 14:12-14). So this time He is sending all four "sore acts of judgment" at once!

God is both warning Ezekiel of the coming destruction and consoling him, saying that his righteousness in the face of much evil and suffering will be vindicated. After the four acts of judgment, God says, the surviving sons and daughters of Jerusalem will come forth to Ezekiel, and he will see their ways and doings, and "you will be consoled for the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem ... [t]hey will console you ... and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it." (Ezekiel 14:22-23).

We, also, are living in times of great evil, much like the people of Jerusalem in Ezekiel's times. I often hear, as consolation, that in times of great trials, God raises up great saints, and I know that this is true. We can see it just by looking at history. It is often said that the 20th century was the bloodiest century in history, and just look at the amazing saints we are blessed to have from those years - like Pope Saint John Paul II, Saint Teresa of Calcutta, Saint Faustina Kowalska, Saint (Padre) Pio, and so many more!

So I know that God is raising up people to guide us through these turbulent times, I sometimes even think I have hints of who some of them may be, like Bishop Barron and Father Mike Schmitz, whose calm and thoughtful commentary and prayer has lifted me out of dark places more than once. God never leaves us alone, He always gives us the people we need in the times we need them (just look at how he gave the people of Poland St. Faustina and the Divine Mercy right before World War II). While there are some obvious faith leaders in every time, including ours, there are always many more faithful people all around us who are striving for holiness and might also be feeling those dark moments at times. We are meant to be consolation to them and they to us.

Ezekiel was an obvious leader, he was a prophet who was, or would be, very known to the people - God made sure of that by making him the "watchman for the house of Israel" ("“So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me." Ezekiel 33:7). But God says that when the survivors come forth to Ezekiel, he will be consoled by their ways and doings. That is, Ezekiel will see the righteousness of the "ordinary" people who were living quiet yet faithful lives amidst the evil and debauchery of Jerusalem. These people will console Ezekiel's heart, he will know that God did what He did, and allowed what He allowed, in order to save them from a wicked place and give them peace and vindication.

So yes, there are great saints being raised up right now in our troubled times, but there are also many "ordinary" saints being raised up, too. We may not be noticing them, but they are there. If we are trying to be faithful and feeling alone, outnumbered, and disheartened, we should look around and seek each other out. Again, God will always give us the people we need. We all should be striving for sainthood, but we cannot all be saints who change the world in obvious ways during our lifetime, like Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa. We can, though, try to be saints in our own little ways and ordinary lives, like Saint Therese and Saint Faustina. We can help others realize they are not alone, and help each other through this, so that we give and receive consolation through our ways and doings.