One-ing
Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Daily Reading: John 11:45 – 56
Focus Passage:
Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, "You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish."
He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on they plotted to take his life. (Jn. 11:49 – 53)
This passage follows Jesus raising Lazarus from death. The dialogue and deliberations you read here are brought about by Jesus stretching his hand of life into Lazarus’ tomb, a precursor to his own death, burial, and Resurrection.
The first half of John’s Gospel is given to the breadth of Jesus’ ministry. The second half of his Gospel is devoted to the last week of Jesus’ life. Tomorrow is Palm Sunday and next week is Holy Week, so it is appropriate that the daily text today leads us into the days leading to Crucifixion and Resurrection.
Much has been made of the high priest Caiaphas’ “prophecy” regarding Jesus. It may be more helpful to think about John’s motive for including this bit of information in his Gospel. He devoted an entire paragraph to editorializing about the speech of Caiaphas.
In the Gospel of John, known as the “mystical Gospel,” Jesus is concerned with “one-ing” people to God, to himself, and to one another. Check it out in John 17:1 – 26. John’s Gospel assumes that God desires this intentional connection with us. What I have called, “one-ing,” is the same experience contemporary spirituality calls “divine union” or “transforming union.”
Caiaphas said, “It is expedient for one person to die for the people rather than the whole nation perish.” John uses these words as an opportunity to extend the good news beyond national lines. He editorializes, “Not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.”
In John’s Gospel, Jesus’ death is not merely about sacrifice and the benefits you and I receive from his offering of life.
Jesus’ death brings us into union with God, drawing us together into oneness. His death unites us with Divine Love.
Jesus’ death puts together all the ways we have been scattered within ourselves, bringing us into union with our deepest, most authentic selves.
Jesus’ death gathers us from the far corners in which we are scattered from one another, bringing us together as a common humanity with common yearnings for the One God.
We cannot achieve this kind of one-ing on our own. We are invited into it by the One who walks toward the Cross.
For Reflection:
You were created for oneness. And Jesus came to invite you into that oneness.
Spend some time today meditating on your experience of that oneness.
When have you sensed yourself – if only for a fleeting moment – as complete or whole . . . with God, with yourself, with others, with the world?
Most of us have brief experiences of this oneness – which often feels like wholeness – but rarely do we live in it for more than a couple of seconds. This, in our human experience, is a foretaste of Divine Union.
Daily Reading: John 11:45 – 56
Focus Passage:
Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, "You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish."
He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on they plotted to take his life. (Jn. 11:49 – 53)
This passage follows Jesus raising Lazarus from death. The dialogue and deliberations you read here are brought about by Jesus stretching his hand of life into Lazarus’ tomb, a precursor to his own death, burial, and Resurrection.
The first half of John’s Gospel is given to the breadth of Jesus’ ministry. The second half of his Gospel is devoted to the last week of Jesus’ life. Tomorrow is Palm Sunday and next week is Holy Week, so it is appropriate that the daily text today leads us into the days leading to Crucifixion and Resurrection.
Much has been made of the high priest Caiaphas’ “prophecy” regarding Jesus. It may be more helpful to think about John’s motive for including this bit of information in his Gospel. He devoted an entire paragraph to editorializing about the speech of Caiaphas.
In the Gospel of John, known as the “mystical Gospel,” Jesus is concerned with “one-ing” people to God, to himself, and to one another. Check it out in John 17:1 – 26. John’s Gospel assumes that God desires this intentional connection with us. What I have called, “one-ing,” is the same experience contemporary spirituality calls “divine union” or “transforming union.”
Caiaphas said, “It is expedient for one person to die for the people rather than the whole nation perish.” John uses these words as an opportunity to extend the good news beyond national lines. He editorializes, “Not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.”
In John’s Gospel, Jesus’ death is not merely about sacrifice and the benefits you and I receive from his offering of life.
Jesus’ death brings us into union with God, drawing us together into oneness. His death unites us with Divine Love.
Jesus’ death puts together all the ways we have been scattered within ourselves, bringing us into union with our deepest, most authentic selves.
Jesus’ death gathers us from the far corners in which we are scattered from one another, bringing us together as a common humanity with common yearnings for the One God.
We cannot achieve this kind of one-ing on our own. We are invited into it by the One who walks toward the Cross.
For Reflection:
You were created for oneness. And Jesus came to invite you into that oneness.
Spend some time today meditating on your experience of that oneness.
When have you sensed yourself – if only for a fleeting moment – as complete or whole . . . with God, with yourself, with others, with the world?
Most of us have brief experiences of this oneness – which often feels like wholeness – but rarely do we live in it for more than a couple of seconds. This, in our human experience, is a foretaste of Divine Union.
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