5th Sunday
of Lent
Today’s first reading from
the Prophet Jeremiah refers to a new covenant between the Lord and his people.
We are all familiar with the Old Covenant. It was written on stone tablets and
we still refer to it as the Ten Commandments. You know, you shall not kill, you
shall not commit adultery, you shall not bear false witness, or you shall not
covet your neighbor’s goods to name just a few.
Writing 600 years before the
time of Christ, the Prophet pointed out that the people had repeatedly broken
or ignored the agreement they had made. However, they will get another chance
but this time the covenant will not be written on stone but on our very hearts.
Heart is, of course, a symbol or metaphor for our souls, or our whole being, to
put it in modern terms.
The way of the Lord will be
in us as if it was part of our genetic makeup.
I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts…No longer will they have need to teach their friends and relatives how to know the Lord. All, from the least to the greatest, shall know me…
.
It will form our conscience
and no one can say that they can’t distinguish right from wrong. We can,
however, refuse to listen to our hearts or darken them to the point where we
think we can get away with anything. Today’s responsorial psalm asks,
Create a clean heart in me, O God.
So, what is the nature of
this new covenant? It is clear from the teachings of Jesus that it built upon
the old covenant but went much further. Its commands no longer apply to members
of your own family or tribe or nation. Moreover, the understanding of the
commandments goes much deeper. Not only are we to love our neighbor as ourself
but also to love our enemies. A clean heart will tell us that anger is not far
from killing, or that lustful thoughts are not that different from adultery.
We know that when the Jews of
the time of Christ heard Jesus expound on the nature of the new covenant, and
on their blindness to its real teaching, they reacted bitterly. We shouldn’t
look back and blame them, however, because most of us today find it as
difficult to see or hear the message. We don’t like to talk about the seven
deadly sins anymore but that doesn’t mean they have gone away in our
enlightened age. Is our world free of pride, lust, gluttony, avarice, anger,
envy, and sloth?
In today’s gospel St. John
gives us the reason why Jesus had to die on the Cross. It’s as if his enlightened
teaching and parables were not enough to convince. Even the healings and incredible miracles were not enough to convince people then and now. He came to sacrifice himself
to save us from ourselves by showing us that the sacrificing of our own selves
was the way to true happiness.
Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat, but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.
I’m not saying that we have
to die on a cross. Jesus died for us although many even today still are
suffering cruel persecution and martyrdom. But a clean heart will tell us that
we have to give up selfishness and self-centeredness even if it only means
being more considerate of the person right next to us. It is not just the
vocation of priests and nuns to give up their own desires and ambitions for the
sake of others; it is the vocation of each one of us.
Paradoxically, Jesus tells us
that only when we do so, will we truly find our own self. In today’s second
reading from the Letter to the Hebrews we see that the suffering of Jesus on
the Cross culminated in his Resurrection. Our own little sacrifices during Lent
should remind us of all the sacrifices that we have been called to make in our
lives. As we approach Holy Week, we should reflect on the real possibility that
we have been carrying the Cross along with Jesus on our own journey through
life.
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Reading 1. Jeremiah31: 31-34
Reading II. Hebrews 5: 7-9
Gospel. John 12: 20-33 (a grain of wheat)
