A Most Unlikely Hero

 

At the darkest moment in Israel’s history, a most unlikely hero set everything right

Homily for the 29^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2023

The most traumatic event in the Old Testament for the Jewish people was the Babylonian captivity.  It began about 600 years before Jesus’ birth, and lasted about 60 years.  The Babylonians took most of the Jews away from their land.

About 60 years after the Jewish people are taken away into exile, King Cyrus of Persia conquers the Babylonians, then sets the Jewish people free,

Not only does King Cyrus set them free, he then writes letters to all the surrounding governors of Jerusalem to help the Jewish people REBUILD their Temple. 

The prophet Ezra tells this story of Cyrus where we read in the Bible “the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom, “Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: ‘All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me, and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem.  Let the Jewish people go up to Jerusalem to build the house of the LORD.  Let all the Jewish people be assisted by the people of that place with silver, gold, goods, and livestock, together with voluntary offerings for the house of God in Jerusalem.”

 

This same King Cyrus is who we hear about in our first reading today.  God tells Cyrus “Thus says the LORD to his anointed, Cyrus, whose right hand I grasp, subduing nations before him, For the sake of my servant Israel, my chosen one, I have called you by your name, giving you a title, though you knew me not.”

It is difficult to imagine a more improbable turn of events in the Old Testament than what King Cyrus did for the Jewish people.  Setting them free, telling them to go home and rebuild their Temple and then he also wrote letters to all the corners of his vast country that people from all over the country are to donate gold, silver and livestock for the new Temple!

 

What is the takeaway from this…God always wins…and usually the victory comes from the most unlikely source imaginable…in the case of Cyrus, God works His victory through a pagan king…

And here is the point: We look around our world today, torn apart by wars all around the world, and we see the turmoil even within the Catholic Church today and we wonder if God has abandoned us.

Let us trust that God is working all things to his purpose even when it appears that we have been abandoned in an earthly way.  Let us cling to God, let us put all our hope in His plan, let us stay close to the Sacraments of the Catholic Church even now when the world seems so dark and lost, 

As St. Paul assures the Romans: “We know that all things work for the good for those who love God”.