🙏 SUNDAY INSIGHTS - THE 5TH SUNDAY OF LENT 🙏

First Reading - Jeremiah 31:31-34 

Second Reading - Hebrews 5:7-9 

Gospel - John 12:20-33

Several years ago Catherine Marshall wrote an article called “When We Dare to Trust God”. She told how she had been bed-bound for six months with a serious lung infection. No amount of medication or prayer helped. She was terribly depressed. One day someone gave her a pamphlet about a woman missionary who had contracted a strange disease. The missionary had been sick for eight years and couldn’t understand why God let this tragedy happen to her. Daily she prayed for health to resume her work. But her prayers were unanswered. One day, in desperation, she cried out to God: “All right I give up. If You want me to be an invalid, that’s Your business!” Within two weeks that missionary was fully recovered. Catherine Marshall was puzzled by that strange story. It didn’t make sense. “Yet” she said, “I couldn’t forget that story.” Then one morning Catherine cried out to God: “God I’m tired of asking you for health. You decide if You want me sick or healthy.” At that moment, Catherine said later, her health began to return. — The story of that missionary woman and the story of Catherine Marshall illustrate what Jesus is talking about in today’s Gospel. “Unless a grain of wheat dies, it cannot bear fruit.” Or to put it another way, unless we die to our own will, we cannot bear fruit for God. 

Today’s readings focus on the approaching death of Jesus which Paul considers as a priestly sacrifice and John considers the moment of Jesus’ “exaltation” and “glorification.” The readings offer us a challenge. Just as Jesus became the “Promised Messiah of Glory” and the “Conquering Son of Man” by offering his life for others, we, too, if we would come to Heaven, must die to self by loving obedience, spending our lives in self-giving, sacrificial service.

The first reading, taken from the book of the Prophet Jeremiah, explains how God will replace the Old Covenant of Judgment with a New Covenant of Forgiveness of sins. This New or Renewed Covenant prophesied by Jeremiah was fulfilled, at least in part, through Jesus’ life, death and Resurrection. 

In the second reading, St. Paul tells the Hebrews that it is by Jesus’ suffering and death, in obedience to his Father’s will, that Jesus established the New Covenant. 

Using metaphors of the “sown wheat grain”and the “spent life” in today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches the lessons St. Paul will repeat. The Gospel hints at the inner struggle of Jesus in accepting the cup of suffering to inaugurate the New and Eternal Covenant. However, Jesus accepts the cross as his “hour,” meaning the stepping-stone to his passion, death, Resurrection, and exaltation. Jesus also considers his “hour” as the way of glorifying his Heavenly Father and of being glorified by his Father. In addition, it is the way by which all people will be drawn into the saving action of God. Finally, the “lifting up” of Jesus on the cross and later into Heavenly glory by Resurrection and Ascension is the assurance of our own exaltation and glorification, provided we accept our crosses.

Dear friends, today’s Gospel teaches us that new life and eternal life are made possible only by the death of the self through obedience, suffering and service. Salt gives its taste by dissolving in water. A candle gives light by having its wick burned and its wax melted. The oyster produces a priceless pearl by transforming a grain of sand through a long and painful process. Loving parents sacrifice themselves so that their children can enjoy a better life than they themselves have had. Let us pray that we may acquire this self-sacrificing spirit, especially during Lent.

Only a life spent for others will be glorified, sometimes here in this world, but always in Heaven. We know that the world owes everything to people who have spent their time and talents for God and for their fellow human beings. Mother Teresa, for instance, gave up her comfortable teaching career, and with just 5 rupees (17 cents) in her pocket began her challenging life for the “poorest of the poor” in the crowded slums of Calcutta. We see similar cases in the history of great saints, scientists, and benefactors of mankind in all walks of life. They chose to burn out rather than to rust out. Examples are the Rockefeller Foundation for scientific progress and the Bill Gates Foundation for AIDS Research. Let us, too, spend ourselves for others