Modern Ezra & Nehemiah

This week I read Ezra and Nehemiah. And something struck me about the parallel between these two biblical figures and Pope Benedict. Ezra restored right worship of the Lord, and rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem. Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem so the City could be re-established after it had been destroyed. Both books were about restoring God's law in his city and in the hearts of his people. The release of the Moto Proprio, Summorum Pontificum strikes me as directly parallel to Ezra re-establishing worship and rebuilding the temple. The Holy Father is seeking to restore the right worship to the Church - not by requiring that all return to the Extraordinary form of the right, but by setting in place an influence to control the rampant liturgical abuses and the lack of the sacred found so often in the current ordinary form of the Latin Rite. As with Ezra, there are some who do not want this. But restoration of the sacred is what we need, and what many who feel exiled within our own Church need. The document released by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith "Regarding Certain Aspects of Church Doctrine" is akin to Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah re-established the borders of the City of God. He strengthened its defenses so that it could again be inhabited and defended by His chosen people. The Pope, through this document, clearly establishes the border of the Church. He is re-stating, and strengthening the defenses against those would see the boundaries erased and relativism installed as god. Of course those outside of the Church take offense - just as Sanballat and Tobiah grew angry. There were even those among the Jewish people who conspired with those outside to stop Nehemiah, as Shemaiah conspired with Sanballat and Tobiah. Similarly, today we see those who are nominally within the Church trying to undermine the work of the Pope on this and other issues. In these old testament cases we see opposition to rebuilding Jerusalem. Today, we have something similar, as Pope Benedict, building on the work of Pope John Paul, calls the people back from the error of their ways so the Church can be strengthened. The question is where do you stand. Do you stand with those seeking to keep the Church weak, or will you give your efforts to building Christ's own Church? I, for one, will serve the Lord by offering my labor in the service of building and strengthening his Church.