Was going to die for the nation

SATURDAY 4 APRIL (Jn 11,45-56)

Reasons of nature, reasons of history, reasons of eternal truth, reasons of created truth, reasons of will, reasons of sin, reasons of foolishness, reasons of ignorance and reasons of false and lying convenience are not the same thing. Let us try to reason according to eternal and divine truth, founded on historical truth and in turn founded on revealed truth. When God, the Lord, sends a person to free his people, that is in physical and spiritual slavery, he does not send him so that the people tomorrow falls into an even greater slavery. Instead, he sends him for a permanent, eternal and definitive liberation. However, if one does not believe either in God or in his sent, then reasonings of unbelief are made, which are of foolishness and insipidity. This has always happened with Moses. Moses himself falls into a similar reasoning: “The Israelite foremen knew they were in a sorry plight, having been told not to reduce the daily amount of bricks. When, therefore, they left Pharaoh and came upon Moses and Aaron, who were waiting to meet them, they said to them, “The Lord look upon you and judge! You have brought us into bad odor with Pharaoh and his servants and have put a sword in their hands to slay us.” Moses again had recourse to the Lord and said, “Lord, why do you treat this people so badly? And why did you send me on such a mission? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has maltreated this people of yours, and you have done nothing to rescue them” (Ex 5,19-23). The same thing happens after Easter, after the first difficulty: “Pharaoh was already near when the Israelites looked up and saw that the Egyptians were on the march in pursuit of them. In great fright they cried out to the Lord. And they complained to Moses, “Were there no burial places in Egypt that you had to bring us out here to die in the desert? Why did you do this to us? Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Did we not tell you this in Egypt, when we said, ‘Leave us alone. Let us serve the Egyptians’? Far better for us to be the slaves of the Egyptians than to die in the desert.” But Moses answered the people, “Fear not! Stand your ground, and you will see the victory the Lord will win for you today. These Egyptians whom you see today you will never see again. The Lord himself will fight for you; you have only to keep still”” (Ex 14,10-14). Caiaphas speaks from his non faith, not in Jesus, but in the God of the fathers. If Jesus is sent by God, the people will never suffer a single harm for him. He might be put to the test, but soon afterwards he will triumph. If it is not from God, the people will not suffer damage in this case either. God will never allow it. The Lord always guards his people. The enemy of the people is only idolatry.

Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he 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?”

The decision to kill Jesus is the most foolish and senseless ever taken by a man. It reveals that it is only the fruit of Caiaphas’ non-faith either in God, or in his Word, or in his history, or in Scripture, or even in Jesus sent by the Father. That of Caiaphas is only a decision of will, governed by foolishness, in turn generated by his non faith in the true God and Lord. If Jesus is the light, life, truth, grace, peace and justice of the world, never might he be the cause of the ruin of the people or of one man. The people tomorrow will be ruined for his idolatry, not for his faith.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, make us people with the purest faith in Christ Jesus.