Scattered to the Four Winds, Gathered into One: Zacharias's Promise and the Gathering of the Elect
Old Testament: Zacharias 2:6; Deuteronomy 30:3-4
O, O flee ye out of the land of the north, saith the Lord, for I have scattered you into the four winds of heaven, saith the Lord. ... The Lord thy God will bring back again thy captivity, and will have mercy on thee, and gather thee again out of all the nations, into which he scattered thee before. If thou be driven as far as the poles of heaven, the Lord thy God will fetch thee back from thence,
Old Testament, also: Ezechiel 37:9
And he said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, O son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus saith the Lord God: Come, spirit, from the four winds, and blow upon these slain, and let them live again.
New Testament: John 11:51-52; Matthew 24:31
And this he spoke not of himself: but being the high priest of that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation. And not only for the nation, but to gather together in one the children of God, that were dispersed. ... And he shall send his angels with a trumpet, and a great voice: and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the farthest parts of the heavens to the utmost bounds of them.
The connection
Sin scatters. The builders of Babel were scattered "into all lands" (Genesis 11:8), and the prophets use the four winds for judgment: Elam is scattered "into all these winds" (Jeremias 49:36), and Israel hears, "I have scattered you into the four winds of heaven" (Zacharias 2:6). Yet the promise came with the scattering: "If thou be driven as far as the poles of heaven, the Lord thy God will fetch thee back from thence" (Deuteronomy 30:4). Ezechiel saw how it would be done: "Come, spirit, from the four winds, and blow upon these slain, and let them live again" (Ezechiel 37:9). The gathering is done at the Cross. Caiphas, without knowing what he said, "prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation. And not only for the nation, but to gather together in one the children of God, that were dispersed" (John 11:51-52). At the end the angels finish it: "they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the farthest parts of the heavens to the utmost bounds of them" (Matthew 24:31). St Justin Martyr reads Zacharias of Christ's coming in glory: "I will command the four winds to gather the scattered children; I will command the north wind to bring them, and the south wind, that it keep not back." St Augustine speaks of "the elect of God, who are to be gathered at the end of the world from the four winds". The Catechism teaches that God, who made human nature one in the beginning, has decreed that all His children who were scattered should at last be gathered together as one (CCC 831).
Moral sense
Christ puts the choice plainly: "he that gathereth not with me, scattereth" (Matthew 12:30). Every soul either gathers with Him or scatters. The gathering begins at the altar. One of the oldest prayers of the Church, said after Communion in the Didache, asks: "Remember, Lord, Thy Church ... and gather it from the four winds, sanctified for Thy kingdom."
Anagogical sense
John sees the four winds held still: "four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that they should not blow" (Apocalypse 7:1), until the servants of God are sealed (7:3). Then "a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and in sight of the Lamb" (7:9). The winds that once scattered are held back while the scattered are brought home.
The Fathers
St Justin Martyr, First Apology 52: "I will command the four winds to gather the scattered children; I will command the north wind to bring them, and the south wind, that it keep not back." St Augustine, Letter XCIII: "they do not destroy the elect of God, who are to be gathered at the end of the world from the four winds, from the one end of heaven to the other." The Didache 10: "Remember, Lord, Thy Church, to deliver it from all evil and to make it perfect in Thy love, and gather it from the four winds, sanctified for Thy kingdom which Thou hast prepared for it".
Warrant
Patristic. St Justin Martyr quotes Zacharias's gathering from the four winds and sets it at Christ's coming in glory (First Apology 52); he quotes from memory, joining Zacharias 2:6 to Isaias 43:6 and the mourning of Zacharias 12:10. St Augustine places the gathering from the four winds at the end of the world (Letter XCIII), and the Didache, an early Church order, prays for it after Communion (Didache 10). Checked in the Greek, and the Septuagint is the key: where the Hebrew and the Douay have "I have scattered you" at Zacharias 2:6, the Septuagint reads ek ton tessaron anemon tou ouranou synaxo hymas, from the four winds of heaven I will gather you. Matthew 24:31 has episynaxousin tous eklektous autou ek ton tessaron anemon, and Mark 13:27 the same phrase, with episynaxei, he shall gather, so Christ's words carry the Septuagint's phrase and its verb, compounded (episynago for synago); there is no citation formula, so the entry claims the patristic tier and not the scriptural one. John 11:52 has ta dieskorpismena synagage eis hen, the scattered gathered into one, and Ezechiel 37:9 has ek ton tessaron pneumaton, from the four winds, or spirits. The entry sits beside Three Gates on Every Side, which follows the nations into the city; this one follows the scattering undone. Dunk found it by setting the prophets' four winds of scattering against the Gospels' four winds of gathering.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 831.
The verses
Zacharias 2:6 · Deuteronomy 30:3 · Deuteronomy 30:4 · Ezechiel 37:9 · John 11:51 · John 11:52 · Matthew 24:31
