28 March 2026 (Saturday) / Lenten Weekday / Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent

28 March 2026 (Saturday)

Lenten Weekday.
Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent.

Readings from the Bible of the Roman Catholic Church:

First Reading: Ezekiel 37: 21-28
Responsorial Psalm: Jeremiah 31: 10, 11-12, 13
Gospel Acclamation: Verse Before the Gospel: Ezekiel 18: 31
Gospel: John 11: 45-56
Liturgical year 2026 (Cycle A/II)
Liturgical color: violet (or purple)

First Reading : Ezekiel 37:21‐28

The Lord says this: ‘I am going to take the sons of Israel from the nations where they have gone. I shall gather them together from everywhere and bring them home to their own soil. I shall make them into one nation in my own land and on the mountains of Israel, and one king is to be king of them all; they will no longer form two nations, nor be two separate kingdoms. They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and their filthy practices and all their sins. I shall rescue them from all the betrayals they have been guilty of; I shall cleanse them; they shall be my people and I will be their God. My servant David will reign over them, one shepherd for all; they will follow my observances, respect my laws and practise them. They will live in the land that I gave my servant Jacob, the land in which your ancestors lived. They will live in it, they, their children, their children’s children, for ever. David my servant is to be their prince for ever. I shall make a covenant of peace with them, an eternal covenant with them. I shall resettle them and increase them; I shall settle my sanctuary among them for ever. I shall make my home above them; I will be their God, they shall be my people. And the nations will learn that I am the Lord, the sanctifier of Israel, when my sanctuary is with them for ever.’

Responsive Psalm : Jeremiah 31:10‐13

The Lord will guard us as a shepherd guards his flock.
O nations, hear the word of the Lord,
  proclaim it to the far‐off coasts.
Say: ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him
  and guard him as a shepherd guards his flock.’
The Lord will guard us as a shepherd guards his flock.
For the Lord has ransomed Jacob,
  has saved him from an overpowering hand.
They will come and shout for joy on Mount Zion,
  they will stream to the blessings of the Lord.
The Lord will guard us as a shepherd guards his flock.
Then the young girls will rejoice and dance,
  the men, young and old, will be glad.
I will turn their mourning into joy,
  I will console them, give gladness for grief.
The Lord will guard us as a shepherd guards his flock.

Gospel Acclamation: Verse Before the Gospel: Ezekiel 18: 31
31 Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, says the LORD, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.
(21. 'If the wicked, however, renounces all the sins he has committed, respects my laws and is law-abiding and upright, he will most certainly live; he will not die.
22. None of the crimes he committed will be remembered against him from then on; he will most certainly live because of his upright actions.23. Would I take pleasure in the death of the wicked -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- and not prefer to see him renounce his wickedness and live?
24. 'But if the upright abandons uprightness and does wrong by copying all the loathsome practices of the wicked, is he to live? All his upright actions will be forgotten from then on; for the infidelity of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, he will most certainly die.
25. 'Now, you say, "What the Lord does is unjust." Now listen, House of Israel: is what I do unjust? Is it not what you do that is unjust?
26. When the upright abandons uprightness and does wrong and dies, he dies because of the wrong which he himself has done.
27. Similarly, when the wicked abandons wickedness to become law-abiding and upright, he saves his own life.
28. Having chosen to renounce all his previous crimes, he will most certainly live: he will not die.29. And yet the House of Israel says, "What the Lord does is unjust." Is what I do unjust, House of Israel? Is it not what you do that is unjust?
30. So in future, House of Israel, I shall judge each of you by what that person does -- declares the Lord Yahweh. Repent, renounce all your crimes, avoid all occasions for guilt.
31. Shake off all the crimes you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why die, House of Israel?
32. I take no pleasure in the death of anyone -- declares the Lord Yahweh -- so repent and live!')

Gospel : John 11:45‐56

Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him, but some of them went to tell the Pharisees what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and Pharisees called a meeting. ‘Here is this man working all these signs’ they said ‘and what action are we taking? If we let him go on in this way everybody will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy the Holy Place and our nation.’ One of them, Caiaphas, the high priest that year, said, ‘You do not seem to have grasped the situation at all; you fail to see that it is better for one man to die for the people, than for the whole nation to be destroyed.’ He did not speak in his own person, it was as high priest that he made this prophecy that Jesus was to die for the nation – and not for the nation only, but to gather together in unity the scattered children of God. From that day they were determined to kill him. So Jesus no longer went about openly among the Jews, but left the district for a town called Ephraim, in the country bordering on the desert, and stayed there with his disciples.
  The Jewish Passover drew near, and many of the country people who had gone up to Jerusalem to purify themselves looked out for Jesus, saying to one another as they stood about in the Temple, ‘What do you think? Will he come to the festival or not?’

For our reflection today:

It has been a while that the doctors of the law and even the high priests, were restless because strange things were happening in their country. First this John, who eventually they left alone because he was a prophet, he baptized there and the people went but there were no other consequences. Then came this Jesus, pointed out by John. He began to do signs, and miracles, but above all to speak to the people and people understood, and people followed him, and he did not always observe the law and this was so disturbing. "This is a revolutionary, a peaceful revolutionary... Who attracted people to himself, and people followed him..." (cf. John. 11:45-48). And these ideas led them to talk to each other: "But look, I don't like this... that other...", and so among them these were the topics of their conversation, of their concern as well. 

Then some went to him to test him, and always the Lord had a clear response for them, which had not come to the mind of the doctors of the law. Let us think of that woman who was married seven times, widowed seven times: "But in heaven, which of these husbands will be she be married to?" (cf. Luke.20:33). He answered clearly and they went away a little bit embarrassed at the wisdom of Jesus and other times they left humiliated, as when they wanted to stone that adulterous woman and Jesus said at the end: "The one among you without sin, let him throw the first stone" (cf. John.8:7) and the Gospel says that they went away, starting with the elders, humiliated at that moment. This grew these conversations between them: "We have to do something, this is wrong...". 

Then they sent the soldiers to arrest him up and they came back saying, "We couldn't arrest him because no one else speaks like this man " ... "You too, have you allowed yourself to be deceived" (cf. John.7:45-49: And they become angry because not even the soldiers could arrest him. And then, after the resurrection of Lazarus - the reading that we heard today comes after that - many Jews went there to see the sisters of Lazarus, but some went to see what had happened in order to report back, and some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done." John. 11:45). Others believed in Him. And those gossipers who go here and there, they chatterer of all the time, who live gossiping ... they went to report him. 

At this time, that group that had formed among the doctors of the law had a formal meeting: "This is very dangerous we have to make a decision. What do we do? This man makes many signs - they recognize the miracles - If we let him continue like this, everyone will believe in him, there is danger, the people will follow him, they will break away from us" - the people were not attached to them - "The Romans will come and destroy our land and our nation" (cf. John.11.48). In this there was part of the truth but not the whole truth, it was a justification, because they had found equilibrium with their occupiers, but they hated the Roman occupiers, but politically they had found a balance. So they talked to each other. One of them, Caiaphas - he was the most radical -, was a high priest (he said): "Don't you consider that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, so that the whole nation may not perish!" (John:11.50). He was the high priest and he makes the proposal: "Let's take him out." And John says: "But he did not say this for himself, but, being a high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation. From that day they planned to kill him. John.11:51-53). 

It was a trial, a process that began with little anxieties in the time of John the Baptist and then ended in this session of the doctors of the law and high priests. A process that grew, a process that they became more secure in the decision they had to make, but no one had said it precisely and clearly: "This person must be cast out." 

This way the doctors of the law proceeded is precisely a model of how temptation works in us, because behind this truly was the devil who wanted to destroy Jesus and the temptation in us generally acts like this: it begins with a little thing, with a desire, an idea, it grows, infects others and in the end justifies itself. 

These are the three steps of the temptation of the devil in us and it is the three steps that the devil worked in the temptation of the doctors of the law. It began little, but it grew, and it grew, until it infected others, and in the end they justify themselves: "It is necessary for one to die for the people" (cf. John.11.50), the total justification. And they all went home calmly. They said, "This is the decision we had to make." And all of us, when we are overcome by temptation, end up calm, because we have found a justification for this sin, for this sinful attitude, for this action not according to God's law. 

We should have a habit of identifying this process of temptation in us. This process that makes us change our hearts from good to evil, that takes us on the road downhill. One thing that grows, grows, grows slowly, then infects others and eventually justifies itself. It is rare that temptations to us come all at once, the devil is cunning. And he knows how to take this path, he took it to come to the condemnation of Jesus. 
When we find ourselves in a sin, that we have fallen, yes, we must go and ask forgiveness from the Lord, it is the first (step) that we must do, but then we need to understand: "How did I come to fall there? How did this process begin in my soul? How did it grow stronger? Who else did I infect? And how did I finally justify myself falling?" 

The life of Jesus is always an example to us and the things that have happened to Jesus are things that will happen to us, temptations, justifications, good people who are around us and perhaps we do not listen to them and we surround ourselves with bad people in the moment of temptation in order for the temptation to get stronger. But let us never forget: always, behind a sin, behind a fall, there is a temptation that began small, that grew, that infected others and in the end I find a justification for sin. May the Holy Spirit enlighten us with this inner knowledge.

Pope Francis - Holy Mass Casa Santa Marta (Domus Sanctae Marthae)  
Saturday of the 5th Week of Lent - Lectionary Cycle II (4 April 2020)

Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,
Pelayan Atasan Tertinggi / Most High Servant,
Yesus, Maria, Yusuf Pelayanan Kasih / Jesus, Mary, Joseph Ministry of Love 
(Blessed and Saints and the Nine Choirs of Angels)

My vocation is Blessed and Saints.

"I am the most humble of all the Saints in Heaven" Mary, Mother of God."

"I am the handmaid of the Lord, said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me."

Mother Mary is the most humble Saint in Heaven and she is also the Mother of God for us all
(Luke 1:38)