Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Intention: For justice in our world, especially for all who are forgotten or excluded, abandoned or abused, persecuted or exploited, that good people everywhere will rise to their defense and come to their aid.
Today’s Gospel | John 11:45-56
Many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what Jesus had done began to believe in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.” He did not say this on his own, but since he was high priest for that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned to kill him.
So Jesus no longer walked about in public among the Jews, but he left for the region near the desert, to a town called Ephraim, and there he remained with his disciples.
Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before Passover to purify themselves. They looked for Jesus and said to one another as they were in the temple area, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?”
A Brief Lenten Reflection
In the Gospel of John’s account of Caiaphas’ meeting with the Sanhedrin, we witness the moment in which the decision is made that Jesus of Nazareth must die. It is coldly reasoned that the value of a life is not absolutely sacred, but merely relative, and that it is the purview of a few to make that determination for the many. Sadly, there is nothing unique about this scenario. History is filled with events in which terrible sacrifices have been demanded and made “in a worthy cause.” Certainly, the genuineness of the impossible quandaries that persons have had to face should be neither degraded nor dismissed. What one might ask, however, is how the historical permission to appeal to those ethical precedents might be encouraging us to carelessness for our responsibilities for creating a present that would never allow for such a broken future? How often have we witnessed human truth and decency demoted in our society as items either inconvenient or irrelevant to its strength and greatness? How frequently have we missed or denied the relationship between our world’s struggle to find peace and its peoples’ struggle to find justice? So many of the dilemmas that back us into our darkest eleventh hours are the result of moral laziness and lack of spiritual imagination. It is as if we do not understand that our story reads as it does because that is what we have written. Author Deepak Chopra suggested, “When you make a choice, you change the future.” The time of Lent, in its emphasis on conversion and commitment, calls us to reflect on the power of our choices. Moreover, we can consider their purpose beyond the immediate, especially when it is clear that there can be nothing tomorrow that does not have its beginnings today.
Prayer
Eternal Father, your gift of salvation was made possible by the “yes” that your Son said to your will, even when he knew what lay ahead for him. In this time of Lent, help us to imitate him, to have the courage to say yes when you ask. Bless us with minds that are wise and hearts that are strong. Increase our faith, and may we make ourselves poor and empty ourselves of all selfishness so that you can use us to be instruments of your saving presence. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.