The Lord is my fortress – Saturday, 25th week in ordinary time – Zechariah 2:1-5,10-11a
The book of Zechariah (meaning = The Lord remembers) consists of two parts . The first part of the book consists of eight night time visions and are are written in apocalyptic style. These visions can best be described at times as strange images or bizarre dreams. But these dreams are symbolic dreams like those of Jacob in Genesis 28 or Joseph in chapter 37 of Exodus.
These night time visions give meaning to the current events that took place in the life of the people of Israel who had just returned from 70 years of exile under Babylonian and then Persian rule. But these visions also provide a window into the future. The dreams in the book of Zechariah are arranged symmetrically in such way that the first and the eight dream are similar, the second and seventh dream are similar and so on.
Our text is taken from the third dream entitled in our Bibles, as ‘the man with the measuring line.’ To understand this text we need to situate it in its historical context. The people of Israel have returned to Jerusalem by order of the edict of King Cyrus of Persia. The prophet Haggai moved the people from apathy to action and work on the temple had begun. The prophet Zechariah whose ministry overlaps that of Haggai now has the task of conveying God’s will through a series of night time vision and today’s reading deals with the first stage of actual recovery of the city of Jerusalem.
The work on the walls of Jerusalem which needed to be built in order to defend the holy city and temple, had begun. The ravages of war and the destruction of the temple and city were still fresh in the minds of the people. If this new Jerusalem was to withstand enemies then the wall had to be built. But angels are sent in a night time vision to the prophet to tell them to halt the project. Why one may ask? Clearly this initiative taken up, urgent and necessary as it may seem, was not God’s initiative but mans.
Fr. Warner D'Souza is a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Bombay. He has served in the parishes of St Michael's (Mahim), St Paul's (Dadar East), Our Lady of Mount Carmel, (Bandra), a ten year stint as priest-in-charge at St Jude Church (Malad East) and at present is the Parish Priest at St Stephen's Church (Cumballa Hill). He is also the Director of the Archdiocesan Heritage Museum and is the co-ordinator of the Committee for the Promotion and Preservation of the Artistic and Historic Patrimony of the Church.
Thank you Fr for this reflection. It made me ponder on that line the Lord “will be a wall of fire all around the city and he will be the glory within it.” I hv many a time said this line in my prayer, especially when I feel very troubled or I feel that sense of danger, not knowing from where I got it, “Lord create a ring of fire around my family or my siblings, or Lord create a ring of protection around my family etc. with yr precious blood.
Today when I read it, I just kept staring at the line & realised the Lord is saying trust in me, trust in me.
Fr. Warner, I look forward to your reflections especially on the first readings. They are so good and give so much background – making it easy to understand. Thank you Father – it is greatly appreciated. Take care and God bless you always for all you do.