“This is the curse that is going out over the whole land.” (Zechariah 5:3)
Zechariah sees a flying scroll, enormous: thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide. This is the curse that is going out over the whole land; every thief will be banished, and everyone who swears falsely will be banished. The scroll will enter the house of the thief and the house of anyone who swears falsely by my name. It will remain in that house and destroy it completely, both its timbers and its stones. Then Zechariah sees a woman sitting inside a measuring basket; the angel says she represents wickedness. A lead cover is placed on it; two women with storks' wings lift the basket and carry it to the land of Babylonia, where a house is built for it.
The Catechism draws from the removal of wickedness to its own house in Babylon the principle that sin ultimately destroys the structure that harbours it: the house consumed by the flying scroll has been destroyed by what it housed (CCC 1865).
Brothers and sisters, the scroll enters the house of the thief and the liar and remains there until the house is destroyed. Sin is not an external force that attacks from outside; it is a resident that consumes from within. The house that harbours theft and false oaths is destroyed by what it shelters. Do not give wickedness a room. It will not stay a tenant; it will become the owner and consume the house.
Lord God, let the wickedness in our houses be carried away to its own place. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.