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1. Jer 31:
31-34
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2. Heb5:7-9
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Gospel:
Jn12:20-33
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The glory of
Christ
From the gospel reading
we are have been told that there were some Greeks in Jerusalem( non-Jews) who
went there to worship God. Probably they had already heard of Jesus, his
miracles, his gestures of love, and kindness etc. They wanted to meet Jesus, to
meet such a famous figure. They sought Philip who was from Bethsaida in Galilee
and said, " Lord we would like to see Jesus." Being in company with Andrew an apostle they
went to meet Jesus. It is from this point of view we are being invited to lead
people to meet Jesus through our life witnesses, examples, words and actions.
In this Sunday we are
being challenged that how many people, despite attending to the Church do not
know Jesus, or if they do, they know very little about Him, so they love less,
do little and do not commit themselves to Jesus and His Church. Nevertheless,
there are many people who want to meet and know Jesus personally and His
message of deliverance. Therefore, on our part as priests, religious, and
laities we need to teach those not yet met Jesus about who is Jesus, what He
did and what He still does to all of us.
In Biblical culture,
knowing means loving, knowing means be close to Jesus ( personal relationship
with Jesus). In this point of view we can have two different types of knowing
Jesus. One of them is that, some people are curious to know Jesus through
academic pursuit, an intellectual knowledge about who is Jesus. Knowing Jesus
in this way, is knowing Him intellectually, however the fruits of knowing Him
are not seen in day to day living. The second way of knowing Jesus, is to know
Him through faith and love. When Jesus is known through faith and love those we
create close intimated with him, we created personal relationship with him, and
really this is a really knowledge needed on our part to know who Jesus is in
our everyday life.
The gospel invites us
to play our part by helping our brothers and sisters to meet Jesus. As Pope
Francis advises us, we should reveal and manifest the love of Jesus beginning
with those closest to us. In communities and Parishes we can help our brothers
and sisters to meet Jesus, because the service in favor of our neighbor gives
meaning to our life, to our existence. We must be a missionary Church, which
our Pope calls the " outgoing Church."
In the gospel, Jesus
takes the opportunity to speak of the universality of salvation, showing that
in the New Kingdom, the Church, there will be no more distinction of races,
nations, sex, color, all will be welcomed. In short what Jesus wants to tell us
is that the Church is not an enterprise, nobody owns the Church founded by
Christ Himself. We are just members of the Church. We should not be the
obstacles for others to be members of the Church founded by Christ Himself here
on earth. In this context we should by all means challenge this disease called
tribalism, that is eating and has already eaten both social and religious
institutions. Our lives, and our living should be governed by the spirit of
Christ, Love, instead of being governed by individualistic mentalities. The
discourse of Jesus is also for the Greeks, Jesus gives them the deep meaning of
his death and resurrection. When Jesus says, " The hour has come when the
Son of man will be glorified...." He meant his death, the moment of His surrender
to the Father in solidarity for the salvation of mankind, is the moment of
suffering, pain cross, but also of His glory.
When Jesus teaches us
about the grain of wheat, he meant of Himself. With this comparison He is
asking his listeners, especially the Greeks, not to be offended when, after a
few days, they see him suffer humiliation and death. He must die, like the
grain of wheat, to resurrect the great fruit which is the salvation of the
world. Jesus compares Himself with the grain of wheat, because if it does not
die, remains only seed, grain. Likewise,
if Christ dies He releases the whole germ of life, all potentiality that exists
in Him, produces many seeds. The grain of wheat also symbolizes our Christian
life. If we want to build the Church in the world, we must follow the same path
of our Lord Jesus, fight against the forces of death and defeat them.
Jesus teaches us an
important lesson about losing our preoccupations for His sake. Jesus is
reminding us of detachment from worldly goods, transient goods. Jesus when invites me to hate my life is kind
of an oriental form of speaking. It means simply to love God more than the
world and life itself. Whoever follows Jesus in this life, here on earth will
stand beside Him also in heaven and the Father will honor him.
Jesus surrenders his
life into the hands of the Father, he is distressed by everything he will have
to face, but that is what He came for. With his death and resurrection Jesus
will tear the world from the power of the devil and become the King of the Universe.
It will be the definitive victory of Jesus and the defeat of Satan. With his
death and resurrection He drew all to Himself, meaning that will gather
everyone around Him in the great community which is the Church. Every moment we
believe in Jesus Christ we become
converted and thus we become transformed.
For Jesus his death will be a glory, an exaltation, a victory (
cf.2:7-10). The glory of Christ was possible because he passed through the
cross. A glory without a cross is not liberating, it is not glory. We will be
authentic Christians as we place Jesus in our lives and follow Him in the cross
and in His glory.
0 Response to "HOMILY FOR THE 5th SUNDAY OF LENT IN YEAR B"
Chapisha Maoni