Today's first reading calls us to faithfulness, to abandon positions of rebellion and follow the Lord. With Him, we are on a journey to the New Jerusalem, to the everlasting city of our God! "I am your Master," says the Lord. "I will take you, one from a city, two from a clan, and bring you to Zion. I will appoint over you shepherds after my own heart, who will shepherd you wisely and prudently...." On this journey through this world, you and I will eventually come to the point in our lives when we "will call Jerusalem the Lord's throne; there all nations will be gathered together to honor the name of the Lord at Jerusalem, and [we] will walk no longer in...hardhearted wickedness."
Every day, every hour, every year, God is leading us toward union with Himself, with one another, all nations with all other nations, all peoples with all other peoples. Becoming one with the Lord, one with one another and one with our innermost self where God dwells are our goals here on earth. Every day, every hour, every moment, God "appoints over [us, over you and me] shepherds after [His] own heart, who will shepherd [us] wisely and prudently," teaching us the ways of communion with one another and with our God! It is God who does the gathering, the coming together in unity, as in the Trinity, where Father, Son and Spirit are one.
In place of today's responsorial, we pray from Jeremiah 31: 10, 11-12abcd, 13. We pray that "[t]he Lord shall ransom Jacob, he will redeem him from the hand of his conqueror, [Satan who seeks division, not unity]. Shouting, they shall mount the heights of Zion, they shall come streaming for the Lord's blessings: The grain, the wine, and the oil, the sheep and the oxen. Then the virgins shall make merry and dance, and young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into joy [as they enter into greater communion with one another], I will console and gladden them after their sorrow [of being divided, of following wicked ways]."
O, the greatness and the mercy of our God!
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