Usually my blog posts center on some aspect of the Gospel passage in the daily readings. I pick out something that strikes me, and try to say something sensible about it. Today I'm going to do something different (no, I'm not going to try to say something that isn't sensible). I'm going to write about today's first reading, from the Book of the Prophet Ezra. This reading tells the story of the release of the Jewish people from captivity in Persia, a captivity which had lasted some 50 years. Ezra tells us that the King of Persia, Cyrus, had been inspired by the Lord to allow the Jewish people to go home, and that Cyrus was even going to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. OK, fair enough. But what really struck me was the fact that Cyrus asks the non-Jewish people to help the departing Jews with silver, gold, cattle and goods, and free-will offerings for the Temple, and the people do so. In fact, according to Ezra, they "give them help in every way." Doesn't that strike you as remarkable? The Jews were foreigners. They were as unlike the people of Persia as they could be. They were being "sent back" (does the expression "send her back" come to mind?). Why in the world would people freely give of their belongings to help them? Wouldn't you expect a statement of "good by and good riddance" from the Persians, who can't have liked these strangers much? And yet that doesn't happen, apparently because Cyrus tells the people to do something different, and they do so. Makes you realize, I think, how much leadership can influence the tone and content of discussions, especially about issues like dealing with strangers among us. We're all human beings, and at a core level have an inherent affinity for one another. We can either bring that out-- the better angels of our nature-- or we can bring forward feelings of competition, aggression, emphasis on differences and exploitation of those differences to create animosity. Leaders get to pick how to proceed. Cyrus could have sent back the Jews with only the shirts on their backs, as happened when they left Egypt. He picks the road of mercy and justice-- the Persians even count out and return as carefully as they can all the property taken from the Temple. In this country when we find the opposite behavior, when we find attacks on immigrants and the rise of white supremacy, we might look at leadership, and compare the approach taken at the top to the approach of Cyrus. Leadership matters.