Word to the Wise
Saturday, March 27, 2021 - 5th Week of Lent - Sat
[Ezek 37:21-28 and John 11:45-56]"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." [John]
The account of the meeting of the Sanhedrin (the ruling council of Judaism in Jerusalem) in the wake of Jesus' raising Lazarus from the dead is full of irony. The concerns are expressed in political terms, but there is a theological twist as well. The Gospel According to John was composed anywhere from twenty to thirty years after the Romans destroyed the temple in response to an insurrection (66-70 AD). There would be another uprising in 135 AD and the Romans would crush that one thoroughly and build a new city on the ruins! In other words, what the Jewish authorities were worried about in regard to Jesus happened, but not because of Jesus. His mission and teaching survived. The temple was destroyed and Judaism had to survive in a completely different way oriented around the Torah and synagogue and not around sacrificial worship and one temple. What would Catholicism look like if the Vatican, St. Peter's Basilica and Rome were to disappear in one bomb blast?
The vision of Ezekiel in the first scripture for today was preached to the Jewish exiles in Babylon who had experienced the destruction of the first temple. It is a vision of hope, centered on the rebuilding of the temple in a future Jewish nation. Our hope is built not on St. Peter's in Rome or on the Vatican but on the person of Jesus Christ. The Christian faith has survived in places where the priesthood and Eucharist were not available because of political persecution. In Holy Week, beginning this weekend with Palm Sunday, we can understand that what happened to Jesus then did not destroy him or his message and mission. No persecution has ever been able to destroy the faith. We continue it even when circumstances deprive us of certain expressions such as the circumstances forced on us by the COVID-19 pandemic!!! We will follow Jesus on his path to Calvary and the tomb of resurrection but we go beyond that to Pentecost and to the preaching of the gospel around the world. AMEN