At the beginning of today’s Gospel (John 11: 45-56) many of the Jews had gone to visit Mary, the sister of Lazarus, in the aftermath of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Afterwards, some of them go and meet with the Pharisees and Chief Priests.

This is where the high priest, Caiaphas, foreshadows Jesus’s death saying ‘It is better for one man to die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed’.

There was fear among these leaders that this popular movement, led by Jesus, would replace them. They used fear about the Romans coming and destroying their holy places and their nation to turn the people against Jesus.

At the end of this gospel, we hear about people looking for Jesus, but such is the threat to Jesus that he has gone off to another place because he can no longer conduct his ministry – his life is in danger.

From this scene, we move towards our celebration of Palm Sunday where Jesus rides triumphantly into Jerusalem.

As our Lenten season draws to a close, we turn our minds to our Holy week celebrations.
Just as people were looking for Jesus in this Gospel, Fr Paul invites us to think about ‘How we, ourselves, are looking for Jesus in our own lives at the moment?  Just how will we celebrate Holy Week this year, given the current circumstances? How might we reach out to others spiritually and amongst ourselves keep holy week, holy?