God's Covenant of Love Sealed by Jesus' Death and Resurrection

In today's first reading, Ezekiel 3: 21-28, God says to the Israelites through the prophet Ezekiel:  "I will take the children of Israel from among the nations to which they have come (some have gone south and some north) 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....I will make 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."

Those are God's words spoken to the Israelites long, long ago. God has spoken and so shall it be in kairos time--God's time!  Fast forward to today's Gospel, John 11: 45-46,  where Caiaphas prophesies that Jesus will die "for the nation, and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God"--you and me and everyone dispersed throughout the world, people of all religions! God will create one out of many. There shall be one flock and one shepherd, all gathered into one Kingdom, the Kingdom of God when life here on this earth comes to an end in kairos time--God's time.

You and I are on a journey to that time.  We are on our way to our eternal home, to the eternal Kingdom that God has secured for us by Jesus' death on the cross to show us the depth, the breadth, the height and the width of God's love for us and to free us from sin and Satan's lies. This week--the holiest week of the year--we contemplate the Paschal Mysteries--Jesus' dying and rising. May we make this week a very holy week by the choices we make to remember and contemplate God's love for us that knows no end!  Nothing is too much for God to say: "I love you personally, unconditionally and eternally! For you I died to save you eternally from the darkness of sin and eternal death. I love you! Do you hear me?"

Jesus: The Good Shepherd

“I am the good shepherd, says the Lord; I know my sheep, and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; for these sheep I will give my life. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must lead them, too, and they shall hear my voice. There shall be one flock then, and one shepherd” ( John 10:14-17).

Here is God’s plan for the salvation of the world; namely,  that the world will be saved through Jesus, His Son. There are those who already belong to the flock. Jesus knows us and we know Jesus in the same way as the Father knows His Son and the Son knows the Father.  For us, Jesus, John says, will give His life. John also tells us that there are sheep who do not, yet,  belong to the fold and that Jesus must  lead them also. “They shall hear His voice. And so there will come a time when there shall be one flock and one shepherd!

How great is the love of our God. How inclusive God’s plan for salvation! God be praised!