Saturday of the Fifth Week in Lent 2020
Dear Friends,
United with each one of you in prayer and love. I have remembered you in my Mass today. The Mass Intentions, for Saturday 4th April is for the deceased members of the Horan Family and B Newham, RIP.
Gospel Reading from Saint John 11:45-56.
Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done.
So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, ‘What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.’ But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing at all!
You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.’ He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned to put him to death.
Jesus therefore no longer walked about openly among the Jews, but went from there to a town called Ephraim in the region near the wilderness; and he remained there with the disciples.
Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. They were looking for Jesus and were asking one another as they stood in the temple, ‘What do you think? Surely he will not come to the festival, will he?’
In todays Gospel as Jesus approaches the last week of His life, the gospel gives us the double meaning statement of the High Priest Caiaphis who says that it is fitting that one man should die for the people. He meant it to save the nation from the suppression of the Jews by the Romans. But John has the prophetic aspect of the statement in mind by seeing that Jesus dying for all is the real meaning of the life and death of Jesus.
As we are about to enter Holy Week let us ask the Spirit to direct and guide our contemplation of the forthcoming re-enactment of the passion, death and resurrection of the Jesus, so that our friendship and thanksgiving with him will grow and mature.
The people reacted to Jesus and his teaching differently, as they do nowadays. Some believed in him after he raised Lazarus from the dead. Others were unsure, so they went to their religious leaders, to find out what they were thinking about him.
This was a way of escaping from answering personally who Jesus was for them?
Who is Jesus for you?
It was recognised by all that Christ was a wonder-worker. The authorities became afraid that if they did not curtail him, all would believe in him. One of them, Caiphas, felt it was better that one man, die, to save the Jewish people. His view was a political one, not a religious one. There was truth in what he said, but not in the way he was thinking.
Jesus kept out of danger for a time in Ephraim. But even though many thought that he would not go up to Jerusalem for the feast, he was always ready to do the right thing.
Caiaphas is afraid that the popularity of Jesus will draw down the wrath of Rome and destroy both the temple – the holy place – and the nation. In his blindness he cannot see that the Jewish people are themselves the temple.
Do I appreciate that I too am a temple of the living God?
Lord, take away my blindness so that I can see myself as you see me?
The chief priests and the scribes – among the most learned people in Israel – did not recognise Jesus. Blinded by prejudice, they decide to put him to death.
Do I ever harbour death wishes for another, even sub-consciously?
Lets stay strong and safe, united in love and prayer with you all.
Fr John