12 April 2025 – Saturday of the 5th week of Lent
Homily
Dear sisters and brothers,
The last sentences of this Gospel introduce us directly to the great Week that we will begin tomorrow, and during which we will commemorate the passion and death of the Lord Jesus, to end, on Easter night, with the solemn celebration of His Resurrection.
During the three years of Jesus‘ public life, the Pharisees and the high priests of the Temple of Jerusalem, that is to say the spiritual authorities of the Jewish people, had developed an increasingly strong opposition to Jesus. While the common people were opening up more and more to Jesus’ teachings and marvelling at the signs He performed, the authorities became more and more closed. The resurrection of Lazarus, who had been in the tomb for three days, was the most dazzling miracle performed by Jesus, but these blind minds saw it as yet another argument for fighting Him. As they were living under Roman occupation, they were particularly anxious not to alienate the occupying power, so as not to get into trouble. But we shall see, this week, that they will call on this same power to put Jesus to death, which they do not have the power to do themselves.
This is truly the height of blindness and perfidy. And yet the Evangelist John sees in a reflection of the high priest a prophecy of which the high priest himself does not see the accuracy. ‘It is better for one man to die for the people,’ he said. And the Evangelist John points out that, without knowing it, he was prophesying that Jesus would die for the nation; and not just for the Jewish people, for it was in order to gather together in unity the scattered children of God.
We already had this prophecy in the text of the prophet Ezekiel, which we read as the first reading of the mass. Yahweh, through the prophet Jeremiah, announces that He will make all the tribes of Israel into a single nation, whereas they were then divided into two different kingdoms, often opposed to each other. He will purify them, He will establish a covenant with this nation and will come to dwell among them. He will be their God and they will be His people. And then comes the conclusion, which is the culmination of the prophecy: ‘The nations shall know that I am the Lord,’ says Yahweh.
The mystery that we will celebrate throughout the coming week is the full Paschal mystery. We never celebrate death alone – not even on Good Friday – nor do we celebrate the Resurrection alone. We celebrate Christ who died and rose again. And above all, we celebrate the fact that He died and rose again for the salvation of all human beings, in order to gather us all into His unity.
May this morning's Eucharist already draw us into this mystery.