Gathering the Nations (21st Sunday of Ordinary Time)

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Near the end of Isaiah, we encounter this prophecy where God declares that He will gather all the nations and declare His glory among them. This declaration is meant to refute any notion of God’s plan being purely nationalistic—i.e., only for the people of Israel. Instead, Israel is the means by which God will pour forth His blessing upon the whole world, just as He promised in Genesis 12:1-3.

We see this promise fulfilled in Christ’s Church. Towards the end of His earthly ministry, Christ gives to His apostles the task of making disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20). The book of Acts tells us that the early Christians begin among the people of Israel, but gradually spread throughout the world, including the very places mentioned in Isaiah—Tarshish (Spain), Put (Lybia), Lud (Asia Minor), and Javan (Greece). As people from these nations become Christians, bishops and priests are ordained among them to offer the Eucharistic sacrifice to God, which fulfills what verse 21 says about God taking some of them for priests and Levites.

Finally, a word may be said regarding the Jews: The Church has always prayed for the conversion of the Jewish nation to Christ, especially during Good Friday, when the Church prays: “Let us pray also for the Jewish people, to whom the Lord our God spoke first, that he may grant them to advance in love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant.” (source). This is because we believe, as St. Paul’s has stated, when “the full number of the Gentiles has come in … all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25-26). So while Isaiah’s prophecy can be taken to refer to Gentile believers in God, this does not exclude the Old Testament people of God.

When this conversion happens, then the prophecy in Isaiah can truly be said to be fulfilled, since then we can truly say that “they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as an offering to the LORD” (verse 20).

J. Luis Dizon