To gather into one the dispersed children of God

Book of Ezekiel 37:21-28. 

Thus says the Lord GOD: I will take the children of Israel from among the nations to which they have come, and gather them from all sides to bring them back to their land. 

I will make them one nation upon the land, in the mountains of Israel, and there shall be one prince for them all. Never again shall they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms. 

No longer shall they defile themselves with their idols, their abominations, and all their transgressions. I will deliver them from all their sins of apostasy, and cleanse them so that they may be my people and I may be their God. 

My servant David shall be prince over them, and there shall be one shepherd for them all; they shall live by my statutes and carefully observe my decrees. 

They shall live on the land which I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where their fathers lived; they shall live on it forever, they, and their children, and their children's children, with my servant David their prince forever. 

I will make with them a covenant of peace; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them, and I will multiply them, and put my sanctuary among them forever. 

My dwelling shall be with them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 

Thus the nations shall know that it is I, the LORD, who make Israel holy, when my sanctuary shall be set up among them forever. 

Book of Jeremiah 31:10.11-12ab.13. 

Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, 

Proclaim it on distant isles, and say: 

He who scattered Israel, now gathers them together, 

He guards them as a shepherd his flock. 

The LORD shall ransom Jacob, 

he shall redeem him from the hand of his conqueror. 

Shouting, they shall mount the heights of Zion, 

they shall come streaming to the LORD’s blessings: 

Then the virgins shall make merry and dance, 

and young men and old as well. 

I will turn their mourning into joy, 

I will console and gladden them after their sorrows. 

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 11:45-56. 

Many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what Jesus had done began to believe in him. 

But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 

So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, "What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. 

If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation."

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing,

nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish." 

He did not say this on his own, but since he was high priest for that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God. 

So from that day on they planned to kill him. 

So Jesus no longer walked about in public among the Jews, but he left for the region near the desert, to a town called Ephraim, and there he remained with his disciples.

Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before Passover to purify themselves.

They looked for Jesus and said to one another as they were in the temple area, "What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?" 

"To gather into one the dispersed children of God"

It is written that: “We, though many, are one body in Christ and individually parts of one another” (Rom 12,5), for Christ gathers us into a unity by bonds of love: “He made both one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity... abolishing the law with its commandments and legal claims that he might create in himself one new person in place of two” (Eph 2,14-15). Therefore we ought to have the same feelings towards each other: “If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honoured, all the parts share its joy” (1Cor 12,26). Hence, as Saint Paul again says: “Welcome one another as Christ welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Rom 15,7). Let us welcome each other if we would share these same feelings. “Let us bear one another's burdens; striving to preserve unity of Spirit through the bond of peace” (Eph 4,2-3). This is how God has welcomed us in Christ. For that man spoke truly when he said: “God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son” (Jn 3,16). For indeed the Son was given as a ransom for the lives of all of us and we have been liberated from death, set free from death and sin.

      

Saint Paul illuminates the outline of this plan of salvation when he says that: “Christ became a minister of the circumcised to show God's truthfulness” (Rom 15,8). For God had promised the patriarchs, fathers to the Jews, that he would bless their descendants, who would also become as numerous as the stars of heaven. And this is the reason why the Word, who is God, was manifested in the flesh and became man. He upholds all creation in being and maintains the well-being of all that exists because he is God. But he came into this world when he became incarnate “not to be served” but, as he himself said: “to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10,45).