Encountering the Word
Many of the people therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.”…Now the Passover was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. 56 They were looking for Jesus and were asking one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? Surely he will not come to the festival, will he?” [Full text: John 11:45 – 56]
Contemplating the Word
The tension is escalating – “will he come or won’t he?” “What will happen if he does?” The pieces on the chessboard are moving into position: the King is about to be sacrificed because the knights, the bishops, and the rooks mistake him for a pawn and believe that he is expedient. Only the Queen has any idea of what is going on, but she isn’t recognised either: and ‘a sword will pierce your soul too’ (Luke 2:35).
Jesus has upset the status quo, and that breeds fear and confusion. We might not always like our present reality, but we take consolation from knowing what it is. It may not be perfect, but it is ours. Jesus has put everything in doubt. This is the fear that will escalate over the next few days, until it culminates in the events of Good Friday.
During these days, Jesus is not the only one under pressure. Because of his insistence on proclaiming the truth of who is and of his Father’s love, others are also struggling. The crowds won’t know which way to jump and will swing backwards and forwards. The same crowd welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, will call for his blood on Good Friday. The Pharisees will go on debating and good Pharisees, like Nicodemus, will find themselves isolated. The disciples will pledge their undying allegiance and then run at the first sign of trouble. Pilate will intuit that there is more to this man, Jesus, than meets the eye, and will attempt to keep the peace and exonerate his lack of action. Only the holy women stand their ground, led by the mother whose experience of her son has always been a mystery to her, and yet her faith has never wavered. She witnesses to it all.
The question is, in our life of faith, do we exhibit the indecision of the crowd, the Pharisees, the disciples, and Pilate? Or do we stand our ground alongside the Queen?
Being the Word
We can be Pontius Pilate. For many of us, the tendency to want to have it both ways is very strong. For example, we like the consolation that our faith brings, but don’t really want the inconvenience of having to live that faith in the full glare of the world’s scrutiny. We hope to do enough to get ourselves over the bar, but we want to hedge our bets.
As discussed yesterday, we are to be evangelisers by our very nature. This highlights an important point with regard to Catholic evangelisation. As Archbishop Prowse noted in his address to the Catholic Education Office, Catholics reveal who they are and what’s important to them, not primarily through their words but through their actions. It is how we live that reveals what it is, and who it is, we believe in. Words are important, but they come second.
The young Christian fundamentalist (see the yesterday’s ‘Being the Word’) had his words – words that polarised and at times taunted. The young Catholics had their actions (what they were doing that evening and how they set about doing it) that spoke to an eternal quest beyond
