Ezekiel 17:1-4 / Matthew 22:34-40
To exist is to live. That seems obvious enough.
But is our existence in this world just based on the fact that we are alive?
We may be alive but we may be just living a routine, monotonous kind of life that seems to be lacking in vision and direction.
Some people may like life to be like that. They just want to mind their own business and shut themselves out of what is happening around them.
Some may want to have a vision and a direction in life, but the burdens of this world have reduced them to mere existence without motivation.
The 1st reading tells of a valley of dry bones, much like a valley of death, where life is non-existent.
But it was actually an image of the people who had lost hope, vision and direction.
They had lost their faith in God and they ended up like a lifeless existence, a valley of dry bones.
Jesus reminds us in the gospel that the purpose of our life is to love God and to love our neighbour.
That will give us a meaningful existence and joyful purpose in life. Otherwise, we will end up like dry bone in the valley.