Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- The Killing Context

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 4.1.23 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

SATURDAY FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT
John 11:45-56

Friends, in today’s Gospel, the chief priests and Pharisees
unite in a plot to kill Jesus because he raised Lazarus from the dead.

The Crucifixion of Jesus is a classic instance
of Catholic philosopher René Girard’s scapegoating theory.
He held that a society, large or small, that finds itself in conflict
comes together through a common act of blaming an individual or group
purportedly responsible for the conflict.

It is utterly consistent with the Girardian theory that Caiaphas,
the leading religious figure of the time, said to his colleagues,
“It is better for you that one man should die
instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.”

In any other religious context,
this sort of rationalization would be validated.
But in the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead,
this stunning truth is revealed:
God is not on the side of the scapegoaters,
but rather on the side of the scapegoated victim.

The true God does not sanction a community created through violence;
rather, he sanctions what Jesus called the kingdom of God,
a society grounded in forgiveness, love,
and identification with the victim.

[MurphsLaw]

+++Many of the Jews who had come to Mary
and seen what Jesus 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?"+++