20190413
THE
INEXORABLE PLAN OF GOD DEFEATS ALL HUMAN IMAGINATION
13 APRIL, 2019,
Saturday, 5th Week in Lent
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Violet.
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First reading
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Ezekiel 37:21-28 ©
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I will bring them home and make them one
nation
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The Lord says this: ‘I am going to take
the sons of Israel from the nations where they have gone. I shall gather them
together from everywhere and bring them home to their own soil. I shall make
them into one nation in my own land and on the mountains of Israel, and one
king is to be king of them all; they will no longer form two nations, nor be
two separate kingdoms. They will no longer defile themselves with their idols
and their filthy practices and all their sins. I shall rescue them from all the
betrayals they have been guilty of; I shall cleanse them; they shall be my
people and I will be their God. My servant David will reign over them, one
shepherd for all; they will follow my observances, respect my laws and practise
them. They will live in the land that I gave my servant Jacob, the land in
which your ancestors lived. They will live in it, they, their children, their
children’s children, for ever. David my servant is to be their prince for ever.
I shall make a covenant of peace with them, an eternal covenant with them. I
shall resettle them and increase them; I shall settle my sanctuary among them
for ever. I shall make my home above them; I will be their God, they shall be
my people. And the nations will learn that I am the Lord, the sanctifier of Israel,
when my sanctuary is with them for ever.’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Jeremiah 31:10-13 ©
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The Lord will guard us
as a shepherd guards his flock.
O nations, hear the word of the Lord,
proclaim it to the far-off
coasts.
Say: ‘He who scattered Israel will gather
him
and guard him as a shepherd
guards his flock.’
The Lord will guard us
as a shepherd guards his flock.
For the Lord has ransomed Jacob,
has saved him from an
overpowering hand.
They will come and shout for joy on Mount
Zion,
they will stream to the
blessings of the Lord.
The Lord will guard us
as a shepherd guards his flock.
Then the young girls will rejoice and
dance,
the men, young and old, will
be glad.
I will turn their mourning into joy,
I will console them, give
gladness for grief.
The Lord will guard us
as a shepherd guards his flock.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Ezk18:31
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Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal
glory!
Shake off all your sins – it is the
Lord who speaks –
and make yourselves a new heart and a new
spirit.
Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal
glory!
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Or:
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Jn3:16
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Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal
glory!
God loved the world so much that he gave
his only Son:
everyone who believes in him has eternal
life.
Praise to you, O Christ, king of eternal
glory!
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Gospel
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John 11:45-56 ©
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Jesus was to die to gather together the
scattered children of God
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Many of the Jews who had come to visit
Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him, but some of them went to tell
the Pharisees what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and Pharisees called
a meeting. ‘Here is this man working all these signs’ they said ‘and what
action are we taking? If we let him go on in this way everybody will believe in
him, and the Romans will come and destroy the Holy Place and our nation.’ One
of them, Caiaphas, the high priest that year, said, ‘You do not seem to have
grasped the situation at all; you fail to see that it is better for one man to
die for the people, than for the whole nation to be destroyed.’ He did not
speak in his own person, it was as high priest that he made this prophecy that
Jesus was to die for the nation – and not for the nation only, but to
gather together in unity the scattered children of God. From that day they were
determined to kill him. So Jesus no longer went about openly among the Jews,
but left the district for a town called Ephraim, in the country bordering on
the desert, and stayed there with his disciples.
The
Jewish Passover drew near, and many of the country people who had gone up to
Jerusalem to purify themselves looked out for Jesus, saying to one another as
they stood about in the Temple, ‘What do you think? Will he come to the
festival or not?’
THE INEXORABLE
PLAN OF GOD DEFEATS ALL HUMAN IMAGINATION
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ EZEKIEL 37:21-28; JEREMIAH 31:10-13; JOHN 11:45-56 ]
It is the deepest hope
of everyone to live in unity with their loved ones, their family, their
colleagues, their community, and with the rest of the world. We are all seeking for unity and
peace. There is nothing more beautiful than to find a community where we
are accepted, loved, forgiven and able to share our lives with. But this
common goal of humanity seems illusive. There is so much division
everywhere. People do not seem to be able to get along with each other,
even in a small family of three persons. Divisions happen because of
differences in opinions, incompatibility in character, human weakness, greed,
selfishness and pride. These are the things that continue to divide us.
Israel too was divided
and scattered among the nations because of their sins. The Northern Kingdom of Israel was
united with the Southern Kingdom of Judah under King David. Under David,
there was unity and peace in Israel for all the Twelve Tribes were
united. As a consequence, the country grew, became strong, prosperous and
was looked upon as a great nation by others. Under King Solomon, Israel
reached its zenith in glory, splendor, wealth and power. Unfortunately,
as in the history of humanity, when a nation becomes rich, powerful and
influential, complacency, greed, ambition and moral decadence will set
in. The kings after David were not as God-fearing as him. Solomon
started well but success, pride and lust got into his head. After him,
the nation started to deteriorate because all the kings that came after them did
not have the moral integrity and the wisdom of David and Solomon to govern the
people justly and unselfishly. When leaders lack upright living and
righteousness, when they have no fear of God, they become arrogant and believed
only in themselves.
Isn’t this what the
world and humanity are moving towards? The irony is that with all the
globalization that is taking place, in migration, economics and trade,
multi-culturalism, mass communication and digital communication, the world is
more than ever so divided, both between and among nations; and within the
country itself. People cannot agree with each other on
anything because everyone has his or her own presuppositions and starting
point. The real dictator in the world is not any world or religious leader but
the ideology of relativism. Truth, today, is no longer based on
objectivity but on personal preferences, clever arguments, cultural
conditioning, propaganda, influence and popularity. The unity of the
world and of society is simply based on trying to create a common space through
dialogue and accommodating each other’s preferences. No one dares to
claim that he is right or wrong anymore. No one knows what is truth or
morality. No government today wants to be the moral compass or leaders
for society, but they are simply mediators seeking to gain consensus from the
majority. In other words, their role is not to decide what is right or
wrong but to be peacemakers and brokers for unity among their citizens so that
all can live in peace and harmony with each other.
This pursuit of peace
and unity seems very illusive.
In the first reading from the prophet Ezekiel, the Lord promised that one day
He would “take the sons of Israel from the nations where they have gone. I
shall gather them together from everywhere and bring them home to their own
soil. I shall make them into one nation in my own land and on the mountains of
Israel, and one king is to be king of them all; they will no longer form two
nations, nor be two separate kingdoms. They will no longer defile themselves
with their idols and their filthy practices and all their sins. I shall rescue
them from all the betrayals they have been guilty of; I shall cleanse them;
they shall be my people and I will be their God. My servant David will reign
over them, one shepherd for all; they will follow my observances, respect my
laws and practise them.” Was this promise ever fulfilled? In truth,
not the way Israel was and is still hoping.
The religious and
political leaders during the time of Jesus too had their own hopes and vision
for peace and unity in Israel. They
were under Roman domination and were hoping that the Messiah would come and
deliver them from the foreign empire. But Jesus was not acceptable to the
Jewish leaders, especially the Temple priests, because they were afraid that
the Romans might step in and take over their authority as Jesus was becoming
too popular and the Romans might think He could be causing disorder. On
the other hand, the people were hoping that Jesus would be their political
messiah to liberate them. After the multiplication of loaves, “When the
people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the
prophet who is to come into the world.’ When Jesus realized that they were
about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the
mountain by himself.” (Jn 6:14f) Such hope was echoed by the
disciples at Emmaus. “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet
mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our
chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and
crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” (Lk 24:19-21)
So in order to protect
their interests and secure their power and privileges, they thought that having
Jesus put to death was the way to protect public order, preserve their
religious institutions and political power.“The chief priests and Pharisees called a meeting.
‘Here is this man working all these signs,’ they said, ‘and what action
are we taking? If we let him go on in this way everybody will believe in him,
and the Romans will come and destroy the Holy Place and our nation.'”
Again in his own thinking and reasoning, “One of them, Caiaphas, the high
priest that year, said, ‘You don’t seem to have grasped the situation at all;
you fail to see that it is better for one man to die for the people, than for
the whole nation to be destroyed.'” His prophecy was also not fulfilled
the way he thought. On the contrary, St John saw his unintended prophecy
in the light of faith. St John gave us the commentary. “He did not
speak in his own person, it was as high priest that he made this prophecy that
Jesus was to die for the nation – and not for the nation only, but to gather
together in unity the scattered children of God.” Indeed, God would use
the death of Jesus to bring about the unity of His people, not according to
what Caiaphas thought. On the contrary, the nation was destroyed and the
Temple as well by the Romans in AD 70 and the people were scattered.
What is the great lesson
we can learn from all this? We
know that Christ is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Ezekiel. He
is that Shepherd whom the Lord said, “My servant David will reign over them,
one shepherd for all; they will follow my observances, respect my laws and
practise them … I shall make a covenant of peace with them, an eternal covenant
with them. I shall resettle them and increase them; I shall settle my sanctuary
among them forever. I shall make my home above them; I will be their God, they
shall be my people.” St Paul wrote, “He is the head of the body, the
church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come
to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of
God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to
himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the
blood of his cross.” (Col 1:18-20) To the Ephesians, he
said, “In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as
it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the
Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the
same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the
gospel.” (Eph 3: 5f)
However, we can never
envisage how the plan of God would unfold itself eventually. As Isaiah says, “For my thoughts are not
your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens
are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts
than your thoughts.” (Isa 55:8f) All we
know is that God’s plan to unite all the peoples in the world will ultimately
be realized. The eternal plan of God is to unite all humanity into one
family. All we are called to do is to play our role in revealing
Christ to the world, and as Church to become more and more the sign and
instrument of unity for the human race through witnessing in words and deed,
living in unity, truth, love and compassion for the poor.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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