Our world loves to erects barriers and boundaries between peoples, nations and groups. God’s vision for the world is far more inclusive – Fr Richard reflects on today’s readings from mass.
Readings for Saturday of the 5th week of Lent can be found here.
Milton Keynes, Harlow, Stevenage, Skelmersdale. These are just a few of the so-called “New Towns” created in Britain in the years following World War Two. The idea was to offer people a place to live designed from scratch, as an escape from overcrowded cities which had developed more haphazardly. One of the concepts of the New Towns was for them to be “open plan” – no walls or fences between properties, to encourage community and neighbourliness. Opinions, of course, vary on the success of the New Towns. But the radical nature of the ideas reminds us how ingrained is the human desire to put up walls and barriers around our little bit of territory – whether it be home, nation, or community.
Our readings today present to us the inclusive vision that God has for his people and his world, where barriers begin to break down. Ezekiel looks forward to a time when God will restore his people from exile in foreign lands to their own nation. The division which existed before, the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, will be no more. “My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people”, the prophet reports God as saying. This vision goes further in today’s Gospel. Caiaphas makes the unwitting prophecy that Jesus should be sacrificed to save the nation of Israel. But then the Gospel writer says that Jesus’ death would be about more than this – it will also “gather into one the children of God”. Just as the curtain in the Temple was torn in two at the moment of Jesus’ death, so are the divisions between peoples are broken down by his atoning sacrifice.
Our world today, it seems, is becoming increasingly divided. People are keen to retreat behind their self-made borders and boundaries, and pull up the drawbridge. In the midst of this, the Church needs to model what an inclusive community looks like, where God’s love is proclaimed and shared to everyone without distinction.
Mass today is at St Mary’s at 11.30am (with Stations of the Cross at 11am).
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