Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent

 Lectionary: 256

Thus says the Lord GOD:
I will take the children of Israel from among the nations
to which they have come,
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.

On this day before Palm Sunday, as we prepare to relive the story of Jesus' arrival in the Holy City, the Church offers the above passage from Ezekiel. It concerns the "one prince for them all." 

Perhaps J.R.R.Tolkien was thinking of that phrase when he penned his famous incantation:

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. 

As I have studied the Old Testament -- especially Deuteronomy, Isaiah, and Ezekiel -- and recited the Psalms daily, I notice how important the return of all Jews to Israel is for the Bible. The prophets agree their diaspora came upon them due to their grievous sins against the Lord. If their systematic neglect of widows, orphans, and aliens was not enough, their sacrifice of infants was unspeakable. (It was a common practice throughout the Phoenician world, and suppressed only when Rome leveled Carthage, the Phoenician capital.) 

The Assyrian army first invaded and destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel. They forced many Israelites to flee while some were forced to move to Assyria. (The Book of Tobit is situated in Assyria.) Later, the Babylonian army captured and leveled Jerusalem. Even the marvelous Temple of Solomon was destroyed, while the Jewish leaders were forced to migrate to Babylon. 

History might have forgotten the Israelites as it forgot the "Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites." (Exodus 3:8) However, God would not forget his promise to Abraham, 

I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will find blessing in you." (Genesis 12)

Remembering the promise and the covenant, the scattered tribes of Israel wait hopefully for the Lord to bring them back to their native land where they will be ruled once again by David or his heir. 

I hear that poignant longing for reunion in our Eucharistic Prayer 2:

Remember, Lord, your Church,

spread throughout the world,

and bring her to the fullness of charity,

together with Leo our Pope

and N. our Bishop, [and his assistant Bishops]

and all the clergy. 

And in Eucharistic Prayer 3:

...you never cease to gather a people to yourself, 

so that from the rising of the sun to its setting 

a pure sacrifice may be offered to your name. 

Saint Paul saw that universal communion restored in the Body of Christ. He urged the Corinthians in both his letters to send money to Jerusalem to support the Christians who endured ostracism from their Jewish people, and also a drought and famine. Because there is only one Body of Christ, if one member suffers all the members suffer. That's how the human body functions, and the Risen Lord Jesus is a human being!

He also felt God's intense desire that everyone -- Jew first and then gentile -- should recognize the fulfillment of Abraham's promises and Moses' Law in Jesus. That too would fulfill Ezekiel's prophecy:

I will take the children of Israel from among the nations

to which they have come,

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,

On Palm Sunday we joyfully greet the "One Prince for them All." In his Kingdom all nations, peoples, tribes, clans, and families will worship the LORD.