March 22^nd 2015.  Fifth Sunday of Lent

GOSPEL: John 12:20-30

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL: John 12:20-30

Among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. These approached Philip, who came from Bethsaida in Galilee, and put this request to him, ‘Sir, we should like to see Jesus.’ Philip went to tell Andrew, and Andrew and Philip together went to tell Jesus. Jesus replied to them

‘Now the hour has come
for the Son of Man to be glorified.
I tell you, most solemnly,
unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain;
but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest.
Anyone who loves his life loses it;
anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for the eternal life.
If a man serves me, he must follow me, wherever I am, my servant will be there too.
If anyone serves me, my Father will honour him.
Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say:
Father, save me from this hour?
But it was for this very reason that! have come to this hour.
Father, glorify your name!’

A voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.
People standing by, who heard this, said it was a clap of thunder; others said, ‘It was an angel speaking to him.’

Jesus answered, ‘It was not for my sake that this voice came, but for yours.

‘Now sentence is being passed on this world;
now the prince of this world is to be overthrown.
And when I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all men to myself.’
By these words he indicated the kind of death he would die.

 The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . In the Old Testament, the people of Israel never managed to keep the Covenant. The prophet Jeremiah speaks of a future Covenant written on our hearts. How is this new relationship with God to be written on our hearts? In the Gospel, Jesus’ moment has finally arrived. Is this a moment of glory, or ostentatious victory? No, it is the moment when the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, yielding a rich harvest. The way of God is not the way of the prince of this world. The prince of this world follows the way of success and self-affirmation. We think that the “good” life is a life of health, entertainment and satisfaction. But Jesus shows us a different way: the way of self-renunciation and abandonment of oneself to God. Good marriages, parents and friendships are made by those who take the path of self-denial and self-giving. But how can we, weak as we are, be transformed from people who seek success and vain glory to people who lose ourselves in God? How can we achieve this attachment to God, the attachment referred to by Jeremiah when he spoke of a covenant written in our hearts? The answer is the life-transforming pardon of God. Through his pardon, offered to us by the Church, Jesus takes away our hankering after glory and the focus on ourselves. Our way of self-conceit is transformed into the self-giving way of Jesus when we experience his life-giving pardon.

The Old Testament is centred on the various Covenants in which God made an alliance with the people, but the people failed to live up to their side of the agreement. The prophet Jeremiah looks forward to a new Covenant written on our hearts.

The Old Testament is centred on the notion of the Covenant. The Covenant concerns the relationship between God and his people and the norms of behaviour that are associated with it. But the people never manage to fulfil these norms! In this context the prophet Jeremiah announces a Covenant of a different sort in which the people will finally manage to respond to the Lord. The new law will no longer be an external code but will be written in their hearts. But in what way will this happen? How will the people attain an attachment to the will of the Father? The text tells us that everyone, old and young, will know God even without the use of instruction. What is the key to this intimate knowledge of God? How do I achieve this profound experience of him that changes my heart? Before considering the answer, which is given in the last part of the first reading, we will turn to the Gospel.

The Gospel announces that Jesus’ moment has finally arrived. Is this a moment of glory, or victory, or self-affirmation? No, it is the moment when the grain of wheat dies to yield new life.

In the Gospel, Jesus’s fame has spread far and wide. Andrew and Philip come to tell the Lord that there are Greeks who wish to see him. All of us want to see Jesus, to meet him, to get to know him. When we go to find him, however, what do we find? The glorious envoy sent by God? Someone who is powerful and capable of imposing his authority on others? Instead we find a grain of wheat that dies. This is the surprising announcement of the Gospel reading. Through our Christian upbringing, we are already aware that Jesus must die on the Cross before rising again. Yet it is always a shock to our way of thinking to reflect on the fact that God does not choose the way of victory, or ostentatious glory, or self-affirmation. God’s way is the way of self-nullification and abandonment, the way of dying in order to give life to others. The image of the grain of wheat is very evocative. It must first undergo a process of decay. At the very moment when it seems to have been ruined, it begins to give rise to a new shoot. The process that appeared to be destroying it enables it to be itself, something that is fundamentally life-giving.

How do we manage to take the path of self-renunciation? By following Jesus, by experiencing his mercy.

Life originates in self-giving. Too often, when we are faced by problems, we think that the solution consists in having security, possessions, affirmation. But the real solution is to lose ourselves in God. How are we to do that with our simple, impoverished capacities? We can do so because Jesus has done so. Jesus manifested the glory of the Father using this way of self-renunciation. The Greeks wanted to see his glory and what they were shown was one who abandoned himself completely in the hands of the Father.

How is the new Covenant written on our hearts? When we experience his grace that transforms us from being self-fixated to abandoning ourselves in the arms of the Father

If we return now to Jeremiah, we find that the last part of the reading is a little surprising. How is this new Covenant to be written in their hearts without instruction of any kind? The Lord will forgive them their iniquity and no longer remember their sins. If we wish to approach God and feel unworthy, the problem is resolved with the experience of pardon. If we have hankerings after glory, we are saved and healed by the humiliation of Christ. All too often our problems are linked to our pretensions and self-conceit. We suffer because we look for glory that does not come. We long for the moment when life recognizes us, compensates us, gives us the satisfactions that we think are rightly ours. In reality, these problems aid us enormously by helping us to grow and become children of God. What is it that really counts? To be contented, to be healthy, to live life from one moment of gratification to the next? Or is it better to learn the art of abandoning oneself into the hands of the Father, and in this way learn to love our brothers and sisters?

The logic of the prince of this world is the logic of success and self-affirmation. This logic can only be opposed by self-abandonment in God. We manage to do this when we experience the healing pardon of God that transforms us.

The Gospel tells us that the prince of this world is now cast out. The Greeks want to see Jesus and expect to see something impressive or spectacular. Instead, Jesus speaks of his death and resurrection, and then mentions the prince of this world. For the logic of the prince of this world is the logic of success and self-affirmation. This logic is the enemy of fraternity, of marriage, of paternity, of service, of social cohesion, and of care of the weak. The logic of success, the logic of the prince of this world, is not beaten by opposing it directly. It is vanquished by abandoning oneself into the hands of the Father. This week we have the announcement of the death and resurrection of Jesus and of the forgiveness of sins. The human being does not need to be stronger, to have more intelligence, to be endowed with more gifts. He needs, in the first place, to be forgiven. The men and women of this world need to be forgiven in order to bring them to full wholeness and health. The forgiveness of the Lord which is made present in the Church is what writes the word of God, the new Covenant, in our hearts.