The Unlikely Prophet and the Passover Plot

Many of the Jews who had come to Mary and had seen what Jesus had done began to believe in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 
So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, 

"What are we going to do?  This man is performing many signs. If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation."

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, said to them,

"You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish."

He did not say this on his own, but since he was the high priest for that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for the nation but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned to kill him.

So Jesus no longer walked about in public among the Jews, but he left for the region near the desert, to a town called Ephraim, and there he remained with his disciples.

Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem
before Passover to purify themselves. They looked for Jesus and said to one another as they were in the temple area, "What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?"
JN 11:45-56

If you were the chief priest in Jerusalem during the time of Jesus, you would not consider the job to be one where you would be retiring from as most of them were installed by Romans and dismissed from office for one reason or another in a year or two.  Now, Caiphas was the exception.  His reign as chief priest extended for eighteen years.  He was good at keeping the Sanhedrin and the people in line and pleasing the Romans, who, incidentally, appointed the chief priests.  The chief priest's vestments which were needed to officiate at the temple on the solemn feast days were held by the Procurator and had to be retrieved from him when they were needed.  Now the procurator could either give the high priest the garb he needed to officiate or not depending on if the procurator was pleased with the high priest.  What made the procurator happiest, what pleased him the most, was a peaceful Jerusalem. 

Caiphas is a prophet in our reading today.  He says that it is better for one man to die than to have the whole nation perish. He beautifully encapsulates the role Jesus will take upon Himself in the coming days.  But why is Caiphas so much against Jesus and His teachings?  He must have known that Jesus did not call for a violent insurrection against the hated Roman occupiers.  Jesus instructed his followers that if they were struck on the cheek that they should turn and offer the other cheek.  This was hardly the stuff that a Messiah would be made of.  In Jerusalem, at the time there were plenty of potential messiahs to go around.  For the most part, the would do or say something to attract the attention of the Romans and find themselves either decorating a Roman cross or being the messiah in a lead mine somewhere.

Jesus was different.  He did things that no other potential Messiah had done before. He cured a man that was certified as being born blind, this was unheard of.  He changed water into wine and even, it is said, raised his friend Lazarus from the dead.   He even advocated paying taxes to the Romans in a way that did not upset the people.  He had many followers and the time was getting ripe for Him to be tried and found guilty on some charge and quickly and quietly be executed.  But, a stoning is not what was needed here.  Caiphas realized that whoever executed Jesus would make a lot of enemies among the believers.  So, somehow, he had to take what would be an internal religious capital crime and somehow turn it into a crime that the Romans would feel deserved death. Let the Romans be blamed for the death of this pain in the neck Messiah.  The idea was now out on the table, the whole Sanhedrin knew that the powerful Caiphas and his father in law Annas were after Jesus of Nazareth.  This being the case, Jesus was already dead, He just did not know it yet. 

Prayer for the Holy Souls in Purgatory by St. Gertrude the Great

According to tradition, St. Gertrude the Great was told by Our Lord that the following prayer, each time she piously recited it, would release 1,000 souls (or a vast number) from their suffering in purgatory:

“Eternal Father,
I offer You the most precious blood
of thy Divine Son, Jesus,
in union with the Masses said
throughout the world today,
for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory,
for sinners everywhere,
for sinners in the universal Church,
for those in my own home,
and in my family. Amen.”