(Reflection for Saturday before Palm Sunday)
Excerpts from the Gospel:
[T]he chief priests and the Pharisees called the Sanhedrin Council. They said, “What are we to do? For this man keeps on giving 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 sweep away our Holy Place and our nation.”
Then one of them, Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all nor do you see clearly what you need. 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 fore-told as a prophet that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the scattered children of God. So, from that day on, they were determined to kill him. (John 11:47-53)
Reflection:
“Jesus should die for the nation.” One man should be sacrificed to save a nation. But that prophesy of Caiaphas was not so cleared in purpose because what he saw was to use Jesus to take their nation be saved from destruction of Romans. “Unfortunately, our world has so many self-styled prophets and advisers who are too eager to sacrifice the lives of others stating that if only we could get rid of him/her/them then all our problems would be solved.”[1] Sometimes, what we see are not the good things that are being done by someone. We disregard the act per se but we see them as hindrances to our way. So, we make means to put him/her/them away on our way. Or worst, we use them instead as instruments to make eased of our life. We are making twist to what are good and bad and then, facilitate what we want. We become utilitarian on events and people.
“Jesus should die for the nation.” One man should be sacrificed to save a nation. But that prophesy of Caiaphas was not so cleared in purpose because what he saw was to use Jesus to take their nation be saved from destruction of Romans. “Unfortunately, our world has so many self-styled prophets and advisers who are too eager to sacrifice the lives of others stating that if only we could get rid of him/her/them then all our problems would be solved.”[1] Sometimes, what we see are not the good things that are being done by someone. We disregard the act per se but we see them as hindrances to our way. So, we make means to put him/her/them away on our way. Or worst, we use them instead as instruments to make eased of our life. We are making twist to what are good and bad and then, facilitate what we want. We become utilitarian on events and people.
In our life, all the goodness of God are manifested. He shows to us all the blessings, mercy and love that we need. We recognize them as goodness of God to us. We cannot even deny them on ourselves. However, whatever God has done good to us, we sometimes disregard it. We rather choose our own will though we know that that will lead us to non-sense, or worst, to sin. In our acts of disobedience, we, too, like Caiaphas, are leading Jesus on the way to the cross. We are killing Him by our sins.
Despite such act, Jesus reminds us again that that cross he accepts and carries to save us and bring back again to life. On the positive sense of the Caiaphas prophesy, Jesus let himself be crucified to fulfill the will of the Father. Through the death of Jesus on the cross, all the people will be gathered again as one nation of God. Jesus embraced His passion and death that in the end, we will be worthy again of heaven through His resurrection. We, being scattered by sin, will be united again to the Father as we celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord.
[1] Reflection for April 16, 2011 (Saturday), Bible Diary 2011 (Philippines: Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc., 2010)
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