Ezekiel shall be a sign for you: all that he did you shall do when it happens. As we have previously seen, the Lord at times resorted to using the personal lives of the prophets- including the calamities that befell them- as a means of passing across his message to the people. The Lord perhaps felt that the use of such “visual aids” would let the people see the urgency of his message thereby paying heed to it. In today’s reading, we encounter one of such instances. 
The Lord was going to take away from Ezekiel his wife. However, contrary to the norm, the Lord instructed Ezekiel not to publicly mourn for his wife (whom he refers to as the delight of Ezekiel’s eyes). Instead, Ezekiel was to groan in silence. The prophet was to keep his turban, wear his sandals, and leave his beard uncovered. In other words, Ezekiel’s life was to continue uninterrupted, as if the death of his wife meant nothing to him. It was an act that raised eyebrows from among the people (as God had rightly foreseen and intended), and they promptly moved to inquire why Ezekiel was acting in such a strange manner. Rather than the prophet, it was the Lord himself who gave them a response:  “I have made Ezekiel a sign for you, and as he has done, so shall you.”
Israel had forgotten what it meant to be “human.” She had forgotten how to smile, cry, mourn, and be sad. She had forgotten how to differentiate the right from the wrong. Just like the delight of Ezekiel’s eyes (wife) had been dimmed, so too was Israel’s  stronghold of pride (the temple) going to be desecrated and Judah’s remnants fall by the sword. However, even a calamity of such a magnitude would not make Israel put on sack clothes (repentance). Israel, because of her stubbornness and infidelity, had grown insensitive to her sins and wrongdoing. Her numerous sins had blinded her from seeing the pain and grief she was causing the Lord God who had given her birth (cf. Responsorial Psalm). If Israel wanted to regain her “humanness,” she had to repent of her sins.
Repentance brings back humanity’s “sensitivity.” When we turn back to God, God teaches us once again how to love, cry, laugh, and mourn. For it is from God that we derive our being. The further we stay away from God, the more non-human we become. May we hasten to the Lord so that he can give us a new spirit. May we hasten to the Lord in order that Lord can re-create us.