After his quite startling words in the General Audience of March 15 (in English)...
In choosing the Twelve, introducing them into a communion of life with himself and involving them in his mission of proclaiming the Kingdom in words and works (cf. Mk 6: 7-13; Mt 10: 5-8; Lk 9: 1-6; 6: 13), Jesus wants to say that the definitive time has arrived in which to constitute the new People of God, the people of the 12 tribes, which now becomes a universal people, his Church.
With their very own existence, the Twelve - called from different backgrounds - become an appeal for all of Israel to convert and allow herself to be gathered into the new covenant, complete and perfect fulfilment of the ancient one.
...Pope Benedict repeats the theme of the complete and absolute universality of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ in his homily (in Italian) of the Mass for the Ordination of Priests for the Diocese of Rome, on May 7:
At last, the Lord speaks of the service of unity entrusted to the shepherd: "And other sheep I have, that are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd" (Jn, 10, 16).
This is the same John repeats after the Sanhedrin's decision to kill [uccidere] Jesus, when Caiaphas said that it would be better if only one man should be killed [morto] for the whole people than that the whole nation perished. John recognizes in these words of Caiaphas a prophetic word and adds: "And not only for the nation, but to gather together in one the children of God, that were dispersed" (11,52).
The relationship between the Cross and unity is revealed; unity is paid with the Cross. This is especially revealed by the universal horizon of the action of Jesus. If Ezechiel, in his prophecy of the shepherd, had in sight the repristination of the unity of the scattered tribes of Israel (cf. Ez 34, 22-24), what is now considered is not only the unification of the dispersed Israel, but the unification of all the children of God, of mankind -- of the Church of Jews and Pagans.
