Episode Details

Ezra tells us in the first Reading of the mass today about the returning exiles to Jerusalem. One of their challenges was how to face the challenge of mixing with the natives, these are the Israelites who were able to stay behind in Israel and not go into exile in Babylon like the great majority of the rest of the Israelites, and their having intermarried with foreign nations that surrounded Israel. These practiced idolatry and other abominations. We can compare ourselves with the returning exiles. We need to fortify ourselves in the doctrine of Jesus Christ to forestall the osmosis that would certainly happen since we are surrounded with other contrary doctrines today.