God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son:
everyone who believes in him has eternal life. JN 3:16
EZEKIEL 37:21-28 ©
My Soul's Beloved,
Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve Your plan of salvation came into effect. You chose and formed a people for Yourself and from them, You would choose the line of David to bring forth the Savior of the world who would restore all that our first parents had lost. You, my Lord and my God, the Son of the Living God, would become incarnate of the Virgin Mary fulfilling the prophecies of Isaiah. You become tangible. God became flesh and dwelt among us. You are the Sacrament of Sacraments, You are the ultimate Covenant. The invisible God became visible. You received Your spotless Body from the chaste Virgin when the Holy Spirit came upon her and the power of God overshadowed her.
Every Covenant that was ever made is finally superseded by the final Covenant between God and those who believe in You, hope in You, put all their faith in You, and love You. We are made a kingdom of priests and prophets, we belong to the royal house of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We are saved by the precious blood of the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.
No longer are we separate from God for You have reconciled us to the Father and You have restored all that was lost forever for with God nothing is impossible.
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.
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.’
JEREMIAH 31:10-13 ©
My Soul's Beloved,
The verses taken from the book of Jeremiah for our reflection in the liturgy today celebrate all that God has done for the people who belong to Him, the sheep of His flock. Sin separates, sin divides, sin wounds, and sin brings despair, sadness, and death. But God our Father would not permit sin and evil to have the last word. He sent You, His Eternal, Living Word, His beloved Son, to repair, to heal, to restore what our first parents so wantonly destroyed by their disobedience.
God made You the ransom by which a price that we could never pay was made on our behalf. You became Christ, the anointed of the Father, Jesus, One who saves, and by the overpowering, irresistible hand of God the face of the earth was renewed. Nailed and lifted high on the Cross, pierced with a lance, from Your wounds O Lord flows never-ending streams of living water that make it possible for the children of men to become worthy children of God.
You O Lord turn our mourning into dancing, our sorrow to joy. You renew us, strengthen us, and carry us on eagle's wings to the place where You dwell. You are our food and our drink and refreshed and nourished by You we journey confidently from this valley of tears to the Kingdom of God, our eternal home.
JOHN 11:45-56 ©
My Soul's Beloved,
Today's Gospel passage speaks of two kinds of people - on the one hand, there are those who after witnessing the power of God when You raised Lazarus from the dead believed in You, and on the other, there are those whose sole occupation is to curry favor with those in power as some of the other Jews did who reported to the Pharisees what they had seen and heard.
The chief priests were so obtuse, so spiritually dwarfed, and so obsessed with maintaining the status quo and safeguarding their own little fiefdoms that they failed to see that God was truly in their midst. God had come to dwell with His people. Their response to the miracles was:
‘Here is this man working all these signs 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.’
Then Caiaphas, being high priest that year, unbeknownst to himself made this prophecy that You were to die for the nation – and not for the nation only, but to gather together in unity the scattered children of God. He 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.’ And from that moment on we are told that Your enemies began plotting Your death. Knowing their evil designs to kill You, You 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. You stayed away until the hour would arrive when You would give Yourself into the hands of sinners and not a moment before that ordained hour.
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