Today is April 12, Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent.
At today’s Mass, we hear: “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” (Jn 11:47-48).
The reaction of the Jewish leaders to the good works of Jesus Christ always astounds me. For instance, in the Gospel today, they have just witnessed the raising of Lazarus from the dead. It is a dramatic and wondrous scene. In many ways, this is the denouement of Jesus’s ministry — and it is the last straw. How can people not now believe that Jesus is who he says he is?
But this is the problem: saying that Jesus is God has repercussions that the Jewish leaders do not want to deal with. They are thinking of the peace that must be kept with the Roman officials. Jesus poses a threat to the status quo, a threat that can destabilize their sense of peace and security.
A ‘threat’ to the status quo
It is true that the divinity of Jesus Christ is a threat to the status quo. As Jesus says elsewhere, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword” (Mt 10:34). Being a disciple of Jesus Christ has implications. Whatever in our lives that is not of God must change, even if it puts us at odds with others.
As Lent comes to a close, we can ask ourselves like Jewish leaders in the Gospel, “What are we going to do?” I hope that during this Lent we have experienced Jesus at work in our lives. We can now look beyond these 40 days and realize that our lives have been changed for the better because God has come to us. His presence to us is not a threat but our salvation.
Let us pray,
O God, who have made all those reborn in Christ a chosen race and a royal priesthood, grant us, we pray, the grace to will and to do what you command, that the people called to eternal life may be one in the faith of their hearts and the homage of their deeds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
