23 March, Saturday — Who is saving whom?

Saturday of the 5th Week of Lent

Ez 37:21-28
Jn 11:45-56

…that it is better for one man to die…

Jean Pierre de Caussade wrote, “To the abandoned soul, the soul that trusts God, God is visible even in the proud souls who oppose Him. Every creature, whether good or evil, reveals God to him.” 

This time next week, it will be Holy Saturday. As I read and reread today’s gospel, I was surprised that, though I have heard and read this passage many, many, many times, I never saw the FULL TRUTH that Caiaphas didn’t know he was speaking. “You do not seem to have grasped the situation at all; you fail to see that it is better for one man to die for the people, than for the whole nation to be destroyed.”

Caiaphas spoke, and the Pharisees agreed with his ‘brilliant’ enlightenment that, in killing Jesus (getting the Romans to kill Jesus) their way of life would be ‘saved’. And so, the decision was made.

At these words of Caiaphas, Lucifer surely thought he was winning – or, perhaps already won — the war against God.

But the tables turned with the fullness of Truth – of sacrificial love — because Jesus was GIVING himself. Jesus was not being manipulated, nor controlled, nor exploited against his will at all. Jesus was not the scapegoat they believed him to be in preserving their lifestyle. Jesus purposefully gave his life for others — including Caiaphas, Pilate, Herod, the Pharisees. Everyone. Those who praised him with palms and ‘Hallelujah’s a few days earlier when He entered Jerusalem on a donkey, as well as those who arrested him; and those who whipped and scourged him (that day and throughout the ages to come). Jesus sacrificed himself, even for Judas Iscariot. Jesus was giving himself for ALL others out of love. Even for you and me.

Jesus willingly accepted all the pain, hurt, scars, betrayal that this world contains, so that you and I would have a way to spend eternity in the glories of heaven. So that you and I would, as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross writes, “… be enthroned with Christ at the Father’s right hand…and ceaselessly sing the praises of God with the choirs of angels… until the morning of eternity breaks forth.”

This is a good day, a good week, to sit alone with God and embrace this kind of love. To talk to God about this – His love. To rest in the love that is found only with God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. And to beg our Lord to show you how to share Jesus with all those in your path. The whole world needs to know this love story.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Gina Ulicny)

Prayer: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen

Thanksgiving: Almighty Lord God of all, thank You for Your constant limitless complete love. Not a detail too small, not a second of unimportance; all of me matters to You, all the time. My heart explodes with gratitude.