It is 21st March 2021. We celebrate the Fifth Sunday of Lent. The readings are from Jeremiah 31:31-34; the second reading is from Hebrews 5:7-9; and the Gospel from John 12:20-33.
When we live for the others, we live long and happily. There is meaning in living for others even in a challenging situation. We are just a week away from the Holy Week. It is the most special time of our salvation not because we are capable of mastering our weakness but strengthening the weak around in in the model left by Jesus.
It was the most painful time of people of Israel. The consoling prophecy from Jeremiah was giving them hope. God wants to make a new covenant. God has made a new covenant with us too through the Sacrament of Baptism. Even in our fallenness, God took this initiative to bring us closer to God. “For I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.” (Jer.31:34). We are reminded by the author of Hebrews that through the life of prayer and suffering, Jesus learnt to obey the Father. Running away from suffering is a spiritual sickness. Most of us are afraid to let go and so we let down ourselves and reduce our potentiality to be the person God wants us to be.
The responsorial Psalm prays, “Create a clean heart in me, O God.” (Ps.51:10).
It is time to wake up from our sleep. It was this very first class on a Monday morning. The wise teacher, a couple of years shy of retirement, started the day by asking her class of high school students: “Here is a quiz for you. You are sleeping. You are dreaming. A big tiger is chasing you. You try to run away, and you see a tiger coming in front of you. You turn sideways, but every side you turn to, you find a ferocious animal coming after you. How can you escape?” There was silence in the classroom. No one dared a response. So finally, the teacher said, “There’s only one answer: Wake up!”
Anthony deMello, expressed it a crude way, “Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don’t know it, are asleep. They’re born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. Strange paradox, to be sure. But, tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare.”
Life is a paradox. Life comes from death.
Life does not depend only on self-expression rather in self-sacrifice.
In the Gospel, we witness three things. Deep desire to see Jesus, the anguish and profound pain of the Jesus, and the promise of Jesus draws us all to Himself through His Cross. We are invited to see Jesus who is in anguish with the approval from the Father. Jesus wants to bring us closer to Him. “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.” (Jn.12:33).
It is time to see Jesus. “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” (Jn.12:21). It is the hour of glorification for Jesus through His passion, death and resurrection. The hour has come to give for Jesus. It is the hour of grace for us all. Unless a grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it remains a single grain alone; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest. Jesus who invites us to live for the other. Winston Churchill: “we make a living by what we get; we make life by what we give.”
During the World War-I am soldier wanted to bring a fallen comrade. He asked the permission from his chief, but he discouraged him saying you would die by brining him and moreover before you reach, he would been dead. But the soldier was adamant amidst the rain of bullets, he went and brough him wounded severely. Seeing him wounded the chief told him that it was not worth brining a dead friend. He told the chief it was worth, sir. What do you mean by worth it? Asked the chief. the soldier answered, “but it was worth it because when I got to him, he was still alive, and I had the satisfaction of hearing him say….” Jim…I knew you’d come.”
Some Greeks expressed the desire to see Jesus. We all have the desire to see Jesus. The Pope Emiritus Benedict XVI explains in the following way, “They shall see me, yes, but not in my earthly, historical life, “according to the flesh” (cf. 2 Cor 5:16); they will see me by and through the Passion. By and through it I am coming, and I will no longer come merely in one single geographic locality, but I will come over all geographical boundaries into the farthest reaches of the world, which wants to see the Father.”
Seeing Jesus is possible by following the Lord and living the Gospel values. The longing to see God is in every one of us. But to see the face of Jesus is not possible without seeing the pain and plight of the poor around. “Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus answers with a statement that has become one of the central texts of Christology: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.” A request made by Philip: “Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied.” “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:2-9). Face of Christ is not found in the Johannine Gospel yet seeking the face of God found in the Old Testament is related to this looking upon the face of God. Transformation happens in losing what we cherish most and finding meaning in life. without struggle, there is no success.
You all know the story of John D Rockefeller, who worked so hard to become the leading entrepreneur. His aim was to have money power, so he squeezed his employees to the fullest. Everyone wishes him death. He became a millionaire at the age 33 and then 43, he became billionaire. At the age 53, he had a strange disease that started to eat him up. His eyebrows and hair have fallen and gradually losing his countenance. So, the media started to prepare his death news. Hearing this, he changed his life. He started to live for the others. He started the foundation that funds for so many community welfares projects. His approach to his co-workers changed. He started to treat everyone with respect and love. His giving brought meaning to his life. He lived until the age of 98.
Jesus invites all of us to live like Him. Doing the will of the Father and doing good works to everyone. May the Lord help us to see Jesus in the faces of suffering humanity. God bless you