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GOSPEL POWER I APRIL 9, 2022 - SATURDAY
GOSPEL POWER I APRIL 9, 2022 - SATURDAY
5th Week of Lent
Gospel: Jn 11:45-56
45Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. 46But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done. 47So 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. 48If 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.” 49But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! 50You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” 51He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, 52and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. 53So from that day on they planned to put him to death. 54Jesus 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. 55Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. 56They 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?”
There is a significant interplay between death and life in today’s Gospel. The gift of life Jesus bestows on his friend Lazarus ironically earns for him the final death sentence pronounced by the highest religious council of the Jews, the Sanhedrin. On the part of the religious authorities, this death sentence is a pragmatic means of protecting the status quo. But from the perspective of God, it signals the arrival of the hour of Jesus — the supreme act of love by which Jesus and the Father will glorify one another. This self-sacrificial death will be life-giving because love transforms death into life. While human beings believe they are exercising power to get rid of the threat to their security, in truth, their prideful decisions and actions are being directed toward the fulfillment of God’s loving design. Not even human sinfulness can block God from drawing life out of death.
Lord Jesus, help us to grasp the insight of St. Paul that, “where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more.” Thank you for the gift oF salvation. Amen.
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By Daughters of St. Paul | Phil-Malaysia- PNG-Thai Province
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GOSPEL POWER I APRIL 9, 2022 - SATURDAY
5th Week of Lent
Gospel: Jn 11:45-56
45Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. 46But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done. 47So 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. 48If 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.” 49But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! 50You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” 51He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, 52and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. 53So from that day on they planned to put him to death. 54Jesus 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. 55Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. 56They 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?”
There is a significant interplay between death and life in today’s Gospel. The gift of life Jesus bestows on his friend Lazarus ironically earns for him the final death sentence pronounced by the highest religious council of the Jews, the Sanhedrin. On the part of the religious authorities, this death sentence is a pragmatic means of protecting the status quo. But from the perspective of God, it signals the arrival of the hour of Jesus — the supreme act of love by which Jesus and the Father will glorify one another. This self-sacrificial death will be life-giving because love transforms death into life. While human beings believe they are exercising power to get rid of the threat to their security, in truth, their prideful decisions and actions are being directed toward the fulfillment of God’s loving design. Not even human sinfulness can block God from drawing life out of death.
Lord Jesus, help us to grasp the insight of St. Paul that, “where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more.” Thank you for the gift oF salvation. Amen.