†††††††   Lord, during the coming Holy Week, let us accompany you in your darkest hours.  †††††††

 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊  

Ezekiel 37:21-28

 You will then say to them:

Thus says Yahweh: I am about to withdraw the Israelites from where they were among the nations. I shall gather them from all around and bring them back to their land.   I shall make them into one people on the mountains of Israel and one king is to be king of them all.

They will no longer form two nations or be two separate kingdoms,   nor will they defile themselves again with their idols, their detestable prac­tices and their sins. I shall free them from the guilt of their treachery; I shall cleanse them and they will be for me a people and I shall be God for them.

  My servant David will reign over them, one shepherd for all. They will live according to my laws and follow and practice my de­crees.   They will settle in the land I gave to my ser­vant Jacob where their ancestors lived. There they will live forever, their children and their chil­dren’s children. David my servant will be their prince forever.

 I shall establish a covenant of peace with them, an everlasting covenant. I shall settle them and they will increase and I shall put my sanctuary in their midst forever.   I shall make my home at their side; I shall be their God and they will be my people.  Then the nations will know that I am Yahweh who makes Israel holy, having my sanctuary among them forever.”

 

Jer 31:10, 11-12abcd, 13

The Lord will guard us, as a shepherd guards his flock.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊ 

 John 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 together the Council.

 They said, "What are we to do? For this man keeps on performing many 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 destroy our Holy Place and our nation."

 Then one of them, Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year, spoke up, "You know nothing at all! 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 like a prophet that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also would die in order 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 festivSaudi

 

Gospel Reflection：

Caiaphasian Logic

 Caiaphas cannot really claim a patent for the 'wisdom' of his statement, "it is better to have one man die for the people than to let the whole nation be destroyed." He was merely articulating a perennial human logic.

A sacrificial system that informs human culture has always been a substitution of one element (to be sacrificed) in order to prevent the destruction of the collective. Human economics is all about letting one sheep be lost in order not to risk the ninety-nine, be it in the abortion logic in planned parenthood or medical triage (e.g., rationing ventilators during a pandemic).

Jesus does not negate the sacrificial system, for life feeds on life. However, he changes it from forceful sacrifice of the other for preserving one's own life to the free and loving offer of one's own life to nurture that of others. How radical and challenging!