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,
I read Your Word and especially this particular passage often, and I know that Your promises and assurances are true for You are Truth itself, and yet, I ask, 'How much longer, O Lord, must I wait to see Your promises fulfilled?' My heart is heavy. My tears flow constantly. I see the years go rushing by, and still those nearest, dearest, closest to my heart, remain far from You. I fear for their salvation. I fear that they will be separated from You forever. I cannot bear this grief, My Lord. Yet, I know that You desire their salvation even more than I do. You died for them, and You plead for them night and day before Your Father. They are covered in Your Blood, their names are engraved on the palms of Your hands. I must believe this Lord.
Grant me this grace, Beloved, to continue to pray unceasingly for them. To lift them always at Holy Mass and place them on the Altar of Sacrifice. In the end, I know Your Hand will save, so until that day and hour dawns, I will pray, I will praise, and I will give thanks now, Lord, for their conversion which will take place just as You have promised.
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. 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. My servant David will reign over them, one shepherd for all; they will follow my observances, respect my laws and practise them. They will live in the land that I gave my servant Jacob, the land in which your ancestors lived. They will live in it, they, their children, their children’s children, for ever. David my servant is to be their prince for ever. 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 for ever. 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 for ever.’
PSALM - JEREMIAH 31:10-13
The Lord will guard us as a shepherd guards his flock.
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.’
For the Lord has ransomed Jacob,
has saved him from an overpowering hand.
They will come and shout for joy on Mount Zion,
they will stream to the blessings of the Lord.
Then the young girls will rejoice and dance,
the men, young and old, will be glad.
I will turn their mourning into joy,
I will console them, give gladness for grief.
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. Then the chief priests and Pharisees called a meeting. ‘Here is this man working all these signs’ they said ‘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.’ 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.’ He did not speak in his own person, it was as high priest that he made this prophecy that Jesus was to die for the nation – and not for the nation only, but to gather together in unity the scattered children of God. From that day they were determined to kill him. So Jesus 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.
The Jewish Passover drew near, and many of the country people who had gone up to Jerusalem to purify themselves looked out for Jesus, saying to one another as they stood about in the Temple, ‘What do you think? Will he come to the festival or not?’
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. 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. My servant David will reign over them, one shepherd for all; they will follow my observances, respect my laws and practise them. They will live in the land that I gave my servant Jacob, the land in which your ancestors lived. They will live in it, they, their children, their children’s children, for ever. David my servant is to be their prince for ever. 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 for ever. 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 for ever.’
PSALM - JEREMIAH 31:10-13
The Lord will guard us as a shepherd guards his flock.
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.’
For the Lord has ransomed Jacob,
has saved him from an overpowering hand.
They will come and shout for joy on Mount Zion,
they will stream to the blessings of the Lord.
Then the young girls will rejoice and dance,
the men, young and old, will be glad.
I will turn their mourning into joy,
I will console them, give gladness for grief.
The Lord will guard us as a shepherd guards his flock.
JOHN 11:45-56
My Soul's Beloved,
My Soul's Beloved,
The world is filled with people who, when they experience You, the Truth, come to believe, and there are many, many more, the Enemies of Truth, who rush to the powers that be, like the people in Your day rushed to the Pharisees to accuse You and stir the pot of hatred, envy, resentment, anger, because they refuse to see and recognize the day of Your visitation. To raise a man who was dead for four days, and not know beyond the shadow of a doubt that only God could perform such a wondrous sign, and continue to be hardhearted is nothing short of demonic. Never has anyone, by just the power of a word, done what You did. You called Lazarus by name and commanded him to come out, and he did, and he was restored to his rejoicing family.
We ought not to be shocked or scandalised when, within the Church's hierarchy, among bishops and priests, we find the heart of Caiaphas well and truly alive. It is so easy to twist the truth and make it sound like an imminent threat. They couch the lie in well-meaning, high-minded phrases, using words like compassion and mercy, when in fact they are doing and promoting the works of Satan.
Too many of us are filled with curiosity and not a genuine desire to experience, embrace, and live the Truth of the Gospel. We run after popular preachers, we are ready to journey to earth's end to listen to them, and we return to our homes with our hearts and lives largely unchanged.
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.’ This is no different from the age we live in; we are prepared to kill many Catholics and Christians just like the religious leaders of Your day did, fearing the power of the Gospel that teaches love, forgiveness, patience, kindness, goodness, mercy, self-sacrifice, generosity, the total gift of self to the other. However, as Caiaphas and his cohorts would discover, just as all the enemies of the Church will also learn to their bewilderment that his prophecy that (You) Jesus was to die for the nation – and not for the nation only, but to gather together in unity the scattered children of God, is being fulfilled in such an astounding manner today as tens of thousands will be received into the Catholic Church this Easter season.
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. Then the chief priests and Pharisees called a meeting. ‘Here is this man working all these signs’ they said ‘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.’ 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.’ He did not speak in his own person, it was as high priest that he made this prophecy that Jesus was to die for the nation – and not for the nation only, but to gather together in unity the scattered children of God. From that day they were determined to kill him. So Jesus 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.
The Jewish Passover drew near, and many of the country people who had gone up to Jerusalem to purify themselves looked out for Jesus, saying to one another as they stood about in the Temple, ‘What do you think? Will he come to the festival or not?’
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