20220409 GATHERING THE SCATTERED CHILDREN OF GOD
09 April, 2022, Saturday, 5th Week of Lent
First reading |
Ezekiel 37:21-28 © |
I will bring them home and make them one nation
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.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Jeremiah 31:10-13 © |
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.
Gospel Acclamation | Ezk18:31 |
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!
Or: | Jn3:16 |
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!
Gospel | John 11:45-56 © |
Jesus was to die to gather together the scattered children of God
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?’
GATHERING THE SCATTERED CHILDREN OF GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [EZ 37:21-28; JER 31:10-13; JOHN 11:45-56]
One of the most painful realities of the world is division. There is division among peoples and among nations. Even within each country, there is much division among the different cultural, religious and social groups. Within the family, the members are divided and often not on talking terms. As a consequence, members would leave their organization, their religion, their country and even their family because of misunderstanding, quarrels and injustices. The root of conflict is always injustice and discrimination. There is an unfair distribution of the world’s resources and within each country. When the gap between the rich and the poor gets too big, unity is shattered. This results in violence and terrorism and armed conflicts.
The cause of division is always sin. It is found in man’s wounded nature, beginning with original sin. Sin is an integral part of man. “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.” (1 Jn 1:8,10) But the root of all sins is pride, beginning with Adam and Eve who wanted to be like God without God. This sin is again represented anew in the Tower of Babel, which is the situation of the world today, when humanity seeks to build his life without God, focusing only on the horizontal dimension of life, work and social involvements, forgetting that God is their creator, Lord and Saviour. When man seeks to build his life without God, it is to usurp His place. As in all cases, exclusion of God leads to ruptured relationships with our fellowmen because pride, selfishness, insecurity, fear and envy become the order of the day.
Hence, in the first reading, the Prophet Ezekiel prophesied that God was going to unite Israel, the Chosen People of God into one people so that they could be the instrument of salvation for the whole of humanity. “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.” There would no longer be two kingdoms, one north and one south, Ephraim and Judah.
The unity between the peoples would happen when God cleanses them of their sins. “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.” Indeed, sin is the cause of division and therefore purifying the people of their sins is the first necessary step to unity. This is true for all of society. If there is so much evil and division in society, it is because there is no morality to govern the lives of our people. More so, in a secular world where everything is relative and there is no question of what is right or wrong. When the world becomes amoral, what hope is there but a greater division because every man would live for himself instead of for others.
But how would this happen unless God dwells in man? “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. And the nations will learn that I am the Lord the sanctifier of Israel, when my sanctuary is with them forever.” Removing our sins must be followed by the indwelling of the presence of God. We can live a life free from sin and selfishness only when God dwells in us and enables us to walk the way of truth and love. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” (Ezk 36:26f)
This is realized in Jesus who is the Shepherd of Israel and of all humanity. “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, forever.” Jesus was the promised Messiah, the Son of David who would unite Israel as one and all the peoples of the world. This was confirmed ironically by the High Priest, Caiaphas who uttered the prophetic words without grasping the full significance of what he 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.” The evangelist noted, “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, in the death of Jesus, man is reconciled with God and man with man. As we enter into Holy Week, beginning with Palm Sunday tomorrow, we are called to deepen our understanding of how His passion on the cross would bring salvation for all and reconciliation between God and man, and among all peoples. In Jesus, the Word became flesh and dwelt in the world. Jesus entered into our history and revealed to us that God is love and that we are all brothers and sisters of the same Father. We are called to love each other with the same love that the Father has given to us. Jesus has taught us the new commandment of love when He commanded us, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (Jn 13:34f)
Indeed, by His death on the cross, we come to realize not just the infinite love of God for us in sacrificing His only Son for us all, but Jesus won victory over the sting of death by dying for us. “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (Heb 2:14f) The fear of death is the cause of many sins because man does not want to die. All capital sins are rooted in the fear of death. St Paul says, “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (1 Cor 15:25f)
But more importantly, His death on the cross makes the resurrection possible. In His resurrection, Christ demonstrates that evil and suffering does not have the last word. This is what St Paul remarked, “For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Rom 5:10f) Pope John Paul II in his apostolic letter, Salvific Doloris said, “In the Cross of Christ not only is the Redemption accomplished through suffering, but also human suffering itself has been redeemed. Christ, – without any fault of his own – took on himself “the total evil of sin”. (SD No. 19) He elaborated, “Christ goes towards his Passion and death with full awareness of the mission that he has to fulfil precisely in this way. Precisely by means of this suffering he must bring it about ‘that man should not perish, but have eternal life’. Precisely by means of his Cross he must strike at the roots of evil, planted in the history of man and in human souls. Precisely by means of his Cross he must accomplish the work of salvation. This work, in the plan of eternal Love, has a redemptive character.” (SD, no 16) With Jesus’ death and resurrection, we should no longer fear suffering and even death because we know we will be victorious at the end of the day.
What is left for us now is to share in Christ’s redemptive suffering so that we can bring reconciliation between God and man; and among all peoples. We must now share in His suffering through mercy, forgiveness and works of love. We have been given the work of reconciliation. St Paul wrote, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” (2Cor5:17-20) As Church, we are called to be the “sacrament – a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all people. The condition of the modern world lends greater urgency to this duty of the Church; for, while men of the present day are drawn ever more closely together by social, technical and cultural bonds, it still remains for them to achieve full unity in Christ.” (LG, No. 1) This then is our mission. Let us begin in our homes, offices, organizations, and our church. Let us be like Jesus, the reconciler and peacemaker.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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