Saturday in the Fifth Week of Lent
Ez 37:21-28; Jn 11:45-56
People react differently to good news. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, we read in today's Gospel, "Many people began to believe in him." Others, however, went to the Pharisees to make up their mind about what they had just witnessed. This begs the question, how do I react when I see God's wonders in my life? Am I able to make decisions for myself when it comes to issues of faith, independent of other interests I might have? Or do I always need to filter everything even my own spiritual experiences through the lens of what benefits me most, or what my political convictions are?
John is a very particular author because he says one thing and is all the time winking. To make his point even more effective, he writes with irony: he writes something but we are meant to understand it in a completely different way.
In today's gospel, first we have Caiphas who says that "It is better for one man die than for all to perish." He said this as a political decision. However in another sense he was also saying something that was very true: through the death of Jesus we are all saved. What we read about in the first reading finally we all long for the unity of the peoples that Ezekiel speaks of, we all dream living in the promised land, whatever it may mean for us, we all wish to be delivered from our sin and all that makes us less perfect. However we know that on our own we cannot attain this. Jesus offers himself for us.
We can appreciate this a bit more when further on we encounter another ironic remark. The people ask, "What do you think? That he will not come to the Passover feast?" Here again we see the author of the fourth Gospel winking again. He wants us to remind us that Jesus himself is the lamb of the Passover feast. Without him there isn't even a Passover at all.
This time of the Lenten season is a time for us to really go deep into the mystery of Jesus' death and resurrection. It is a time for us to reflect on how Jesus has taken our place of sin and death on the cross so that we may have life. Now it is only a question of contemplating the cross, perhaps even without saying anything but rather being open to listening to what Jesus wants to tell us in outr heart of hearts.
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