Homilies

Fifth Sunday of Lent
April 2, 2006

(For the Homilies Archive, click here.)

What is God Saying in the Readings?

Today’s readings for the Fifth Sunday of Lent teach us about Salvation History, about God preparing the world for the coming of his Son. In this story, God makes people—especially the chosen people—suffer. Because of this gift of suffering, many begin to develop a spiritual vision of the world, and thus when the Messiah comes, there are enough to carry on his work of salvation.

In the first reading, the chosen people have just come out of captivity. While in captivity, sacrificing in the Temple is not a possibility. Yet many of the Jews grow closer to God during this time. Being away from the physical Temple, they come to realize that sacrifice is not mere ritual. No, true sacrifice involves a conversion of the heart. As the Psalmist says: “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Ps. 51:17)

Because of their new spiritual awareness, God’s children are ready to receive a new gift of grace. God will now offer a grace that will take them to an even higher level of spiritual maturity. God says through the voice of Jeremiah: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” (Jer. 31:33) Here God is speaking about the gift of the Holy Spirit, for which Jesus is going to prepare the way.

The second reading is really a commentary by Saint Paul on the event in today’s Gospel. Saint Paul emphasizes that we are made mature through obedience and suffering. In Jesus, Saint Paul says, we see a perfect example of referent submission, yet, as Saint Paul says, even Jesus himself learned obedience through suffering. (Heb. 5:7–8)

Then in the Gospel we come to the event where Jesus gives us the ultimate and paradoxical teaching regarding suffering. Out of the very lips of Jesus we here: “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (Jn. 12:25)

This teaching of Jesus is difficult. But because our forefathers persevered and matured throughout Salvation History, many are prepared to accept it. Our Lord himself emphasizes that many are now prepared:

We hear in today’s Gospel that Phillip and Andrew go up to inform Jesus that there are some Greeks who came to Jerusalem to see him. The response of Jesus is unusual. He says this: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” (Jn. 12:23) With this response, Jesus is telling all who are listening that the coming of the Greeks to visit him is a sign that the whole world is now ready to receive the new law written on our hearts.

But then Jesus gives us the more disturbing teaching, the teaching that explains the practical consequences of this new way of life. Jesus says: “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (Jn. 12:24)

And it will be just days after giving us this teaching that Jesus himself will demonstrate how to live it. Jesus is the single grain of wheat who dies on the Cross in order to bear much fruit. As he says: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (Jn. 12:32) Yes, because this one grain of wheat dies in the name of love, millions now come to him to receive the Bread of Life. Catholics throughout the world and the angels and saints in heaven are united in the heavenly community singing “Holy, Holy, Holy”.

What is the Message in the Readings?

Today’s readings send us a strong message: die with Christ so that you can live the life of heaven. Don’t focus on health, beauty, and riches. Don’t try to preserve yourself as a beautiful (and lonely) grain of wheat, but give of yourself even unto death. Die so that you can bear a family of fruit.

Most of us were raised with this teaching of dying to self, but how many of us actually live our lives according to this principle? We know so little about ourselves. Oftentimes we are oblivious to what is really motivating our decision–making. More often than not we make major decisions in life without even calling to mind our Master’s teaching of dying to self. Only after heading in the direction we’ve decided upon do we try to fit Christ’s teaching into our lifestyle. In the end, our lives prove fruitless, and we remain a lonely grain of wheat.

So, who is the fruitful one? She is the exhausted lady who has given birth and breast–fed her 9 children, now gathered around her at the Thanksgiving feast. She is Mother Theresa (“The Saint of the Gutter”) whose giving of self has produced a community of 4,000 nuns called Missionaries of Charity. She is the Blessed Virgin whose humble “fiat” has given birth to the Universal Church.

Sadly, most of us have no real intention of living such a life of giving. No, our decisions are, at bottom, selfish. In the end what we really care about is appeasing our appetites. Without even knowing it we ask ourselves: “Is this decision of mine going to bring me food, clothing, and shelter?” “Is this decision of mine going to bring me money, sex, and power?” We come up with all kinds of reasons to give our actions a Christian veneer, but at bottom we are only acting for self.

So for us, Mother Theresa is a sign of contradiction. Her radical decisions are based on principals totally contrary to ours. We can appreciate her from afar, but we choose to live our lives based on totally different principals. We opt for money, sex, and power while she has chosen poverty, chastity, and obedience.

It is disturbing for us to hear that our Father in heaven is not merely suggesting that we could act with the kind of radical obedience that Mother Theresa has chosen. No, God is demanding that we actively seek his will and then obediently act upon it. To be obedient even unto death is a rule of life we must follow—if we wish to partake in the heavenly feast. As Jesus says in today’s Gospel: “If any one serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if any one serves me, the Father will honor him.” (Jn. 12:26)

But we are so blinded by pride that, even when we hear these words from our own Master, we only smile piously and go on with our superficial and self–centered lives. The Master’s words have little effect in our hearts. What, then, is to be done? Is there no hope for us to gain eternal life?

Someone once asked Saint Thomas Aquinas: “How does a man obtain eternal life?” His answer: “He wills it.” Yes. You just will it. Like the Nike ad: “Just Do It. ”

But just doing it will not be easy. Athletes sweat a lot in order to win the gold. Like the athletes we must work hard to obtain heaven—even to the point of doing violence to ourselves. As Saint Matthew says: “The violent bear it away.” (Mt. 11:12) Or as Saint Paul says: “I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air, but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified.” (1 Cor. 9:26–27)

We have saint after saint as examples to imitate. We even have the lady with 9 children who lives down the street. We can look around us and find people who are living truly fruitful lives, and we can imitate them. We can become fruitful by imitating fruitful people. This will mean doing violence to ourselves. It will probably involve serious fasting, it may involve quitting a comfortable job, it may even involve giving up everything and living a life of strict poverty, chastity, and obedience.

But the decision is ours. God is offering us the grace, we only have to unite our will with his.

What is my Response to the Readings?

If I am to unite my will with my Father’s, I must come to know my Father’s will. Therefore, I will make the firm commitment to go to confession each week, for sin is the only obstacle to grace. For the same reason I will fast from breakfast every Friday, in order to submit my passions to a higher calling. I resolve to become intimately familiar with the my Father’s sentiments. Therefore, I will read the whole of the Bible once a year, and I will develop the habit of doing Lectio Divina.

To do these things, I beg for God’s grace. With the Psalmist I pray:

Create a clean heart in me, O God.
Have mercy on me, O God
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit.
Gloria Patri, et Filii, et Spiritui Sancto.
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper,
Et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Contribution by Brother Anthony Myers
© SACROS 2006 {www.sacros.com}
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