John 11.45-56 – Saturday of the V Week of Lent
In the end, in this passage from the Gospel of John, we come to read the decision to physically eliminate Jesus. Caiaphas, high priest in that year, states it clearly: “It is better for just one man to die for the people and not for the whole nation to be ruined.” The evangelist immediately adds a decisive detail: «However, he did not say this on his own, but, being high priest, he prophesied that Jesus had to die for the nation; and not only for the nation, but also to gather together the children of God who were scattered».
There is a profound paradox here: a decision born from calculation and fear becomes, in the hands of God, a revelation of salvation. Jesus will indeed die for the people, but not in the sense his accusers intended. He will die to save, to guard, to gather. The Gospel places these words before us on the threshold of Holy Week, as if to prepare us for what is about to happen: the entry into Jerusalem, the passion, the cross. Nothing that happens is random. Everything fits inside a drawing of love which is accomplished to the end. And perhaps today we are called to make a personal passage.
Saying that Jesus died “for all” is true, but it may remain a generic statement. The Gospel, however, asks us to go further: Jesus gave his life for me. Until we feel that that cross directly concerns our life, that that sacrifice is also for us, we risk not grasping the significance of this love. It is not an anonymous gesture, aimed at an indistinct mass. It is a personal act, which reaches everyone. Whoever you are, whatever your story, there was a man, the Son of God, who gave his life for you too. Not because you were already perfect, but so that you could be saved. This is what makes the cross so disarming: a love that reaches the extreme consequences, without conditions, without calculations. And which continues, even today, to seek each of us.
Saturday 28 March 2026 – (Saturday of the V Week of Lent)
