The readings today are about unity — and about the cost of bringing it about.
In the first reading, the prophet Ezekiel speaks to a divided people.
Israel has been torn apart.
North and south.
Tribes against tribes.
A people meant to be one now broken.
And God makes a promise: “I will make them one nation…
and one king shall be king over them all.”
Not two kingdoms.
Not competing loyalties.
One people.
One shepherd.
And then God says something even deeper: “My dwelling place shall be with them… and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
Unity is not just political.
It is spiritual.
It comes from God dwelling among His people.
That promise prepares us for the Gospel.
Because in the Gospel, something remarkable happens.
After the raising of Lazarus, many believe in Jesus.
But others go to the Pharisees.
And from that day on, we are told: “They made plans to put him to death.”
Why? Because the truth has become too clear to ignore.
The chief priests and Pharisees say:
“If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him,
and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
They are afraid.
Afraid of losing control.
Afraid of losing power.
Afraid of what truth might cost them.
And then Caiaphas speaks: “It is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.”
He means it politically.
Sacrifice one man to keep order. Remove the problem. Preserve the system.
But St John tells us something extraordinary.
Caiaphas does not realise what he is saying. “He prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.”
Here is the heart of the Gospel.
The death they plan in fear becomes the means of salvation.
The division of humanity is healed by the sacrifice of Christ.
This is the difference between human thinking and God’s action.
Human thinking says: Remove the problem. Control the situation.
Protect what we have.
God acts differently. He does not remove the problem. He transforms it.
He brings life out of death. Unity out of division.
Christ does not die to preserve a system. He dies to create a people.
A people gathered from every nation.
A people united not by power but by grace.
And this matters for us. Because division is not only something out there.
It begins in the heart.
A divided heart cannot love well.
A divided heart cannot remain faithful.
A divided heart always pulls in two directions.
And we see it in daily life.
Wanting to follow Christ — but also wanting to keep control.
Wanting truth — but only when it is comfortable.
Wanting unity — but not wanting to forgive.
Christ comes to gather what is scattered. Not only in the world. But in us.
To bring together what is divided. To make the heart whole.
But notice the cost.
Unity is not achieved by ignoring truth.
It is achieved through sacrifice.
Caiaphas says more than he understands.
“One man should die for the people.”
That is exactly what happens.
But not as a political calculation.
As an act of love.
And so as we approach Holy Week, the Gospel becomes very clear.
The cross is not an accident.
It is the place where God gathers His people.
Where division is overcome.
Where sin is defeated.
So the question for us is simple.
Do we allow Christ to bring unity into our lives?
Or do we hold onto the divisions we have grown used to?
Because Christ still works in the same way.
He does not force unity.
He calls us into it.
Through truth.
Through sacrifice.
Through love.
And the promise remains:
“I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
Not scattered.
Not divided.
But one.
In Him.
St. Mary's, St. John Bosco and St. Edward's 