UNITY

What was it that Jesus has done that many came to believe in Him? He raised Lazarus from death and this was when they started to plan to kill him. More and more people are following Jesus, they can’t control Him anymore. The Sadducees unlike the Pharisees were very political. They make sure that their relationship with the Romans are safe so that they do not lose their power, land and nation. This is what the human heart wounded by sin is capable of doing. We see a mighty deed and yet it results to what we’re going to reflect this Good Friday. The sin of killing God. This is what happened so that we would not perish. There’s an irony here since Caiaphas having said something not 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. This concern about losing their land and nation to the Romans is connected to the 1st reading about the land and nation being spoken of. It is to unite and bring back the people that have been divided and scattered. This is the history of the Old Testament. It is about the division and the split of the northern and southern kingdoms. Some were faithful and unfaithful, God wants to deliver them from apostasy and idolatry that they imitated from the other nations. God gave them a land and a king and they were not to be overcome by the Assyrians but because of their sin of shedding the blood of the innocent they were swept away by the Babylonians. This reading according to Ezekiel is something that would happen in the future. At that time, listening to a prophecy like this is difficult to understand but we see its fulfillment in the gospel today. This also connected to the promise to David and in conjunction w/ Caiaphas prophecy of gathering the nation into one. It is also talking about us. Nowadays, we see our nation dispersed by all kinds of indignity, violence by various forms of jealousies and rivalries, tensions and selfishness. Just like what Paul says in the scripture, I know the good I ought to do but can’t do it. We are torn among ourselves and we can be whole through the wound of the cross. This coming Friday we are invited to venerate the cross. Meditate on the body and blood of Jesus given up for us. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. He has something to say about what kind of nation we’re supposed to be. He gathers the dispersed nation of God. We pray especially this coming week that the things that divide us we’ll be healed. It is a good thing to pray for especially on those days. We pray for the unity of all Christians and for the church to come together to intervene for the rights of the oppressed, the poor and the helpless not only in the physical sense. It is important that we realize that unity doesn’t mean pretending that there are no differences among us but it is more of looking at our brothers and sisters as co disciples of Christ. We join hands and hearts to proclaim the truth that God so loved the world that He died for us, arose from the dead and He is coming back. We focus on the affirmations that we can strongly and consistently proclaim and seek opportunities to affirm the faith that we share in common. It is not pushing aside or pretending that the differences we have are not there but work together as dispersed children of God to bring us all into that unity and life. Amen. Hallelujah!


Ezekiel 37:21-28
21 Thus says the Lord GOD: I will take the children of Israel from among the nations to which they have come, and gather them from all sides to bring them back to their land. 22 I will make them one nation upon the land, in the mountains of Israel, and there shall be one prince for them all. Never again shall they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms. 23 No longer shall they defile themselves with their idols, their abominations, and all their transgressions. I will deliver them from all their sins of apostasy, and cleanse them so that they may be my people and I may be their God. 24 My servant David shall be prince over them, and there shall be one shepherd for them all; they shall live by my statutes and carefully observe my decrees.


Jeremiah 31:10, 11-12, 13
R: The Lord will guard us, as a shepherd guards his flock.
10 Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, proclaim it on distant coasts, and say: He who scattered Israel, now gathers them together, he guards them as a shepherd his flock.


John 11:45-56
45 Many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what Jesus had done began to believe in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. 48 If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation.” 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing, 50 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.” 51 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, 52 and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God. 53 So from that day on they planned to kill him.