In Chapter 11 of the Gospel according to St John (11:50-52), the High Priest Caiaphas says that "it is necessary for one man to die for the sake of the people" and John interprets this to mean that Jesus had to die "for the Jewish nation, but not only for the Jewish nation but to gather in union all the scattered children of God." In today's reading from the First Letter, John repeats this doctrine: "Jesus is the sacrifice that takes our sins away, and not only ours but the whole world's. Putting the Gospel and the Letter together we can affirm that in saving us from our sins, Jesus also removes the effect of sin, which the Gospel says is "the scattering of the children of God." This is most likely a reference to the story of Babel in Genesis 11, here the people refused to trust God and so disobeyed him. As a consequence "God scattered them over the whole face of the earth" (Gen 11:9).

We may presume, or at least hope, that Jesus' gathering together all the scattered children of God is something that will be accomplished on earth one day, as well as in heaven after the Last Day. There is so much which apparently though not necessarily divides us that we lose sight of the one important thing that unites us: we are simply children of the one Father in heaven.