PASCHAL MYSTERIES FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY

SATURDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF LENT

Ezek 37:21-28; Jer 31:10-13; Jn 11:45-56

The Paschal Mysteries as source of Unity

We close the week’s meditations on the mystery of God’s love shown to us in the paschal mysteries by considering these mysteries as the source of Christian unity. We have understood the spiritual meaning of Abraham’s blessings as pointing to the saints’ possession of their bodies in the holiness of life, which will find its ultimate fulfilment in the resurrection of our bodies as we profess in our Creed. In this spiritual sense, the Promised Land is not the land of Canaan but the spiritual land, sacramentally given as the humanity of Jesus Christ and his mystical body, the Church. The Son of Man is the Issue of Abraham, who will reign as king forever; first, over his body or human nature, over the Church as his mystical body, and over the whole creation in his glory. The prophecy of Ezekiel illuminates this understanding more. “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.” The children of Israel were scattered to seed the gathering of the nations to form the new people of God as prophesied.

Just as in the case of Abraham, God fulfils his promises on physical and spiritual levels, leaving us no ground to doubt his infinite power to save us. He gave Abraham multitudes of physical descendants and even more spiritual descendants to fulfill his promise. Similarly, God gathered the physical children of Israel from all the nations he scattered them. Also, he gathered the spiritual children of Israel from all the nations to their spiritual homeland, the Church, with David to be their king forever. David here means the Son of David destined to build the House of God. In this aspect of kingship, it is clear that the spiritual interpretation is more to God’s will and intention than the physical interpretation. The Church fulfils the words of the prophecy in this spiritual sense. “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.” In the gospel passage of yesterday, our Lord made it clear to the Jews that they were not descendants of Abraham, even though they are physically descended from him and live in the Promised Land of Canaan. His words apply to all who are in the Church physically but do not believe and live out the paschal mysteries; they are not in the Church, for they do not believe in the sacred humanity of our Lord. A lack of faith would prevent us from eating the mysteries daily and following the Eternal Shepherd of our souls. The Paschal Sacraments we celebrate contain these mysteries.  

The words of Prophet Jeremiah used for the Responsorial fulfilled through these Paschal Sacraments. “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.’” We see the Son of Man feed the people who believe in him through his words, works, and life in the gospel. “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.” The faithless deny themselves the food that gives eternal life by their refusal to believe these mysteries. By their refusal to believe, they bring about the paschal mysteries and the unity of those who believe and become children of God. Inadvertently, Caiaphas, the high priest, prophesied about these events, and inadvertently, they brought the mysteries about by their thoughts, words, and works. “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.’” His words aligned with the will of the Father to gather all his spiritual children together in Jesus Christ through the paschal mysteries. We pray for the grace to eat of these mysteries constantly, to enter the Promised Land, and to become one with Jesus Christ, the Eternal Shepherd.

Let us pray: O God, who have made all those reborn in Christ a chosen race and a royal priesthood, grant us, we pray, the grace to will and to do what you command, that the people called to eternal life may be one in the faith of their hearts and the homage of their deeds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.