Saturday, March 28, 2015
5th Week of Lent
1st Reading: Ezk 37:21–28
Gospel: Jn 11:45–56
Many of the Jews who had come with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw what he did; but some went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees called the Sanhedrin Council.
They said, “What are we to do? For this man keeps on giving miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, all the people will believe in him and, as a result of this, the Romans will come and sweep away our Holy Place and our nation.”
Then one of them, Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all nor do you see clearly what you need. It is better to have one man die for the people than to let the whole nation be destroyed.”
In saying this Caiaphas did not speak for himself, but being High Priest that year, he foretold as a prophet that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the scattered children of God. So, from that day on, they were determined to kill him.
Because of this, Jesus no longer moved about freely among the Jews. He withdrew instead to the country near the wilderness and stayed with his disciples in a town called Ephraim.
The Passover of the Jews was at hand and people from everywhere were coming to Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover. They looked for Jesus and as they stood in the Temple, they talked with one another, “What do you think? Will he come to the festival?”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
The Jewish Council used the growing number of Jesus’ supporters as an excuse to charge Jesus. They reasoned out that his growing fame would alarm the Romans. But what a lame excuse! Why would the Romans react to Jesus’ threat to destroy the Temple? The Romans had their own gods to worship. They didn’t care two hoots about what would happen to the Jewish Temple. With or without the Romans reacting negatively to the activities of Jesus, the Jews were determined to kill him because he was becoming a threat to their authority. Hunger for power was behind their plot to kill Jesus.
Today, hunger for power continues to affect innocent lives. Consider how power hungry politicians grab from the people even the only power left in their hands, that is, the power to elect. They do so through deception and election maneuvers. What happened to Jesus is happening to the poor today, with this one big difference: they killed Jesus in a day on Good Friday, while the modern power hungry people are killing the people slowly day after day. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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