Many began to believe him. | Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent

From the responsorial psalm: “Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, proclaim it on distant isles, and say: He who scattered Israel, now gathers them together, he guards them as a shepherd his flock. The Lord will guard us, as a shepherd guards his flock.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 11:45-56)

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.”

The mention of Mary in the first line of today’s Gospel refers to the resurrection of her brother Lazarus. Many witnesses spread the news of this miracle and came to believe in Jesus. This news alarmed religious leaders already threatened by Jesus’ popularity and his claims to divinity. Under the leadership of Caiaphas, the Sanhedrin planned to kill Jesus in order to save their nation. So from that day on they planned to kill him. “So Jesus no longer walked about in public among the Jews,” John tells us, “but he left for the region near the desert, to a town called Ephraim, and there he remained with his disciples.” The approaching Passover would bring about the fulfillment of Jesus’ mission, who offers himself as a sacrifice for the salvation of all.

God, help me understand what the events unfolding in the Gospel mean to me in the present day. This event is not isolated in time but sweeps up all of history to bring the sins of humanity to the passion and death of your Son. With the resurrection of Lazarus, many came to believe in Jesus. In his saving death and resurrection, Jesus becomes the means of working all things for the good to reconcile each person to you. Help me recognize that in my sins I also nailed to a tree the Son of God. Give me a grateful, humbled heart as I consider the true price of reconciliation with you.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

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