5^th Sunday of Lent (B); 3-21-2021

Jer 31:31-34.  Ps 51.  Heb 5:7-9.  Jn 12:20-33

Deacon Jim McFadden

            As Lent comes to closure, the Church gives us an extraordinary text for our meditation: Jeremiah 31:31ff which reads, “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah…I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts.”

            This passage may very well be the central message of the Bible as it connects the Old to the New Testaments.   We remember it when we participate in Mass because Jesus called it to mind the night before he died when he took a cup and said, “Take this all of you and drink from it. This is the cup of my blood, the blood of new and everlasting covenant.”  What Jesus is saying was the covenant predicted by Jeremiah 600 years earlier was coming true.  Yes, “days are

Coming in which I’ll make a new covenant.”  Jesus is saying that those days have come!  “Those days have come because there is a new covenant in my blood.”

            Let’s breakdown this remarkable proclamation.  Now, what is a covenant?  It’s not a contract which involves a transaction of mutual interests, but is more like a promise—a pledge of mutual love in which each party honors their duties and responsibilities towards the other.  A covenant is like a wedding vow:  “I will be your God and you will be my people,” which is the basic form of the Israelite covenant.  It’s not an exchange of goods or services, but is an exchange of persons: “I’m yours and you are mine”—that’s a covenant.

            Now, the ‘new and eternal covenant’ that Jesus is offering can only be entered through one portal: namely,  the Cross where his blood is spilled and his glory is revealed.  Today’s Gospel is basically saying that if you want to know Jesus, that if you want to participate in his very Being as members of his mystical Body, then you have to turn your gaze towards the Cross.  Today, we’re so accustomed to the Cross or, in the case of Catholics, the Crucifix, that it seems like an ornamental object or a clothing accessory.  But, it’s so much more than that: it is a religious symbol that points to a profound reality: within the image of the crucified Christ is revealed the mystery of the death of the Son of God who sacrificed himself in the supreme act of love, which is the source of life and salvation for humanity for all ages.  Put simply, we have been healed by his wounds.

            In John’s Gospel Jesus uses an image that helps us understand the import of the Cross.  Our Lord says, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (Jn 12:24).  What Jesus is teaching us the grain only realizes its purpose is by dying (“falling into the earth”) which produces wheat.  In other words, fruitfulness comes about through sacrifice: his wounds have healed us—a fruitfulness which will bear fruit for many until the Last Judgment.  Jesus thus compares himself to a grain of wheat, which, rotting in the earth, generates new life.  As John earlier noted in his prologue, the Word of God became Flesh in the person of Jesus.  But this is not enough.  He must also die to redeem humankind from the slavery of sin and death and to offer us a new life that is brought about by his unconditioned love.  I used the term ‘humankind’, but our relationship with Jesus is always personal: he did all of this for YOU—all of us, each one of us.  If there was any other way to bring about our salvation, don’t you think the Father would have done it to spare his Son such a tortured death?  No, this is the only way and Jesus paid the price for our redemption.  This is the mystery of the Messiah.  To appreciate what Jesus did for us, we have to move towards his wounds, enter into them, contemplate them and, as we do, we will see Jesus—but from within.

            Since we are members of his mystical Body, the Church, the dynamism of the grain of wheat must also take place within us, his disciples.  Jesus didn’t go through all of this to spare us from the Paschal Mystery, but to show us how to live it.  This the mystery of our Faith.  We enter into Trinitarian love, we realize our destiny, by losing our life in order to receive it renewed and eternal.  And, what does losing life mean.  Or, what does it mean to be a grain of wheat?  It means to go from self-centeredness—about thinking about oneself, personal interests, agendas, etc.—to becoming God-centered in which you live as God operates: namely, self-giving love.  That translates into the practical realm by “seeing” the needs of your neighbor, especially the least of them

 (cf. Matthew 25).  It means to use your gifts, talents, resources, and your very life for the good of others, especially those who suffer in their bodies and spirits.  That is authentic gospel living.  It is the necessary foundation upon which our communities can grow in fellowship and solidarity in which all people are welcome and no one is excluded.

            Our Lenten journey is an opportunity to draw closer to Jesus, to see him for who he is.  But that can only be done from within.  So, we penetrate his wounds and contemplate that love in his Sacred Heart that he has for you, your family, your parish community, for everyone.  Let us keep our gaze on the crucified Christ.  Amen.