That Nothing Be Lost

SUNDAY NEXT BEFORE ADVENT

JER 3:14-18; JER 23; JN 6

And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.

"That nothing be lost"… this was the loving impulse behind the promise God made to the people of Judah through the prophet Jeremiah: that the fragments resulting from a sad division between the ten Northern tribes, called Israel, and the two Southern tribes, called Judah, would be gathered together again. It is a Divine word spoken at a time of distress, for God's people are on the verge of exile in Babylon. They will soon be separated from the city of God as a fragment of bread torn from the loaf. The existing division between the 12 tribes will be intensified.

But it was a word of hope as the days seemed to be drawing darker with the threat of the Babylonians looming over them. Judah remembered what had happened to Israel, the Northern Kingdom, a little over 100 years before – the Assyrians had invaded them and taken them and scattered their tribes to other nations. Through Jeremiah to Judah, God's message was that they were about to suffer the same fate, entering into exile in Babylon. The hard message of impending exile is also interspersed with bright flashes of hope of a future ingathering by God.

BEHOLD, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days, Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely (Jer 23:5-6).

To the people of Judah, it must have seemed as though they were at the end of days. And yet the promise Jeremiah was told to proclaim was not just for Judah, the nation under current threat, but to the Northern Kingdom, which they most likely assumed was lost forever – it is the promise of a gathering in of all God's people. It was a reminder that the fragments lost years ago had not been forgotten, but they too would be saved.

Through Jeremiah, God promises the remnant a second Exodus, one greater than the Exodus from Egypt, which was the foundation of gathering and creating a people for Himself. "Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when people will no longer say, "As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt," but "As the Lord lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them," Then they shall dwell in their own land."

God would do this through a man, a king raised up from David's branch who would reign and prosper. A man who would come and "execute judgment and justice in the earth." One, in his days, that would save and secure his people: both Israel and Judah. With the promise of a new Exodus came the promise of a better Moses, "a prophet like me (said God) from among you, from your brothers— And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him" (Dt 18:15-17).

A promise of a new shepherd who would gather that which was scattered, for to Micah God said, "I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob; I will gather the remnant of Israel; I will set them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men" (Micah 2:12). In fact, God promised through Jeremiah to one day be this shepherd according to his own heart who would gather and feed them,

For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered... And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries… and bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel…there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture, they shall feed on the mountains of Israel.

And yet, what they did not, what they could not comprehend or anticipate, was the Advent of God in the flesh: his coming to them as both God and man in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, they couldn't have expected the breadth of the future promise to gather Israel to Himself. Who are these tribes that were to be gathered in? Was it just the Jewish people – Judah and Israel?

But elsewhere in Jeremiah's prophetic ministry (and in Isaiah and in Micah) is foretold the repentance also of the Gentiles: "O Lord my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble, to you, shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say, Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies [their worship of idols], worthless things in which there is no profit. Can man make for himself gods? Such are no gods!" (Jer 16:19-20)

And it is clear in this prophesy: the Gentiles are not being brought to a particular land, but to God Himself. And to God, they have come. A Church growing to this day throughout the world, people acknowledging the God of Israel as their end, seeking the Kingdom of God, seeing it and entering it through baptism and faith, knowing finally, even in the turmoil of worldly chaos, true rest for their souls, the homeland they have always sought and longed for.

For the promised ingathering of all of God's people in Jeremiah comes about through the promised Messiah, "Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as King and deal wisely… In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel shall dwell securely…. He will be called "The Lord is our righteousness."

And Advent is a time of remembering that God has and is fulfilling his promise to gather all that has been scattered by the incarnation of His Son. It is Jesus Christ whom we believe justifies us, accounts us righteous, not because of what we have done wrong but because we are joined with Him, and He is our righteousness. Judgment passes over us in this greater Exodus, and we are freed up from guilt and fear – this greater Exodus is not just from political enslavement but from the enslavement of our hearts and minds to sin. And the place we're being brought to is not on earth, but a heavenly kingdom, even unto God Himself. Jesus is the Great Gatherer.

And from today's Gospel, we see that the Great Gatherer is also one who feeds and sustains with the superabundant food of his body and blood. "And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would." See how the Lord gathers the barley loaves into his hands, as he as gathered us, and placed us in his hands. St. John says that Jesus gave eucharisteo (eucharist), giving thanks for what he holds. John is the only gospeller who records our Lord employing the word eucharist for thanksgiving, implying the blessed sacrament which he has given the church as a means of continual restoration, healing, and gathering of our scattered souls.

For Jesus is the bread of life, he is the manna from heaven, given for the life of the world. And John wants us to make this all-important connection. This miracle is given as a sign to teach the disciples, the crowd, and us today that He is the one whom Israel was promised, the One who would gather and plenteously feed his people. The eucharistic bread blessed so many years ago on Israel's peaceful hills still feeds today through the spiritual food of bread and wine.

The eucharist we eat is the very life of God within us, given to strengthen and sustain us through our Christian pilgrimage, our great Exodus into heaven itself, our attaining of God at the end of this age. Jesus is gathering all that is scattered and feeding us with his very life that we may have life: gathering up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.

Beloved, we have come to the final week of another church year: a week in which we will give eucharisteo to God on Thanksgiving Day. But it should also be a week of personal reflection, reflecting upon this past year in which we have labored for growth in the spiritual life. Has grace enabled the mastery of certain sins? Can you mark growth in virtue? Is the fruit of the Spirit manifesting itself through forgiveness: truly forgiving those who have hurt you as Christ has forgiven you? A one-time friend, a husband or wife, a father or a mother?

Have the motions of the Holy Spirit expanded your openness to God and neighbor? Are you giving yourself as a gift to those around you? And do you realize that others are given as a gift to you? Is your participation in the Divine life on the increase, and has your love deepened for the Lord Jesus Christ? Is our life a eucharist to God? One of gratitude and thanksgiving for the life we have received?

Today, as we close the chapter of another year and transition into a new Advent beginning, we are called to respond to this gracious gift by seeking to be righteous, to submit to this loving King who reigns over us, who gives us the grace to follow more closely in the way of love. Jesus is our righteousness, in that we are accounted righteous through our union with Him, and He promises to make us righteous as we submit to His rule, that's what His Kingship means, and so let us gladly submit to Him in our lives, because he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Therefore, let us give eucharist to God, who feeds us with the eucharist of His body and blood. Beloved, be at rest: you are in his hands, and He has gathered the fragments of your shattered lives to himself that nothing be lost. Amen+