Many of us fear death. It brings sadness and an unknown. We may have experienced the grief of losing a loved one, and we may be angry that God allows death. But today’s Gospel lends itself to hope. Jesus tells us that we must die in order to have new life. What a strange command. Let’s pause a minute though to reflect on the nature around us. Every year, we see death come to the plants around us. The weather becomes cold and often gloomy and the trees are bare and flowers unfound. As we wait though, we slowly notice the days warming, the sun shining, and new life springs forth. There’s a hustle and bustle with the birds chirping and the plants coming back to life with their colorful vigor. So too with us. We must experience a death of things in our lives that hold us back from blooming into the creation God has called us to be. We must allow these parts of ourselves to be put to death so that we may bloom in full color as we become fully alive, the man or woman God created us to be.

First Reading Reflection

~Jeremiah 31:31−34~

In this passage, the great prophet Jeremiah off ers one of his greatest prophecies, the prediction of the New Covenant. While the Bible records many different covenants, the main covenant of the Old Testament era is the covenant of Moses, received on Mount Sinai. A covenant is like a contract, yet much more. By covenants, persons would commit themselves to one another and agree to perform certain actions, permanently pledging themselves in fi delity to each other. God had committed himself to his people in the covenant with Moses, yet his people had been unfaithful to him many times. Jeremiah here acknowledges their infi delity and forecasts the solution: God will bring about a new covenant for his people, which includes their internal obedience. “I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:32). Under this new covenant, the fi delity of God’s people would be assured, their sins would be forgiven, and every one would truly know the Lord.

At the Last Supper, Jesus invokes this prophecy in the words of consecration, indicating that he is fulfi lling Jeremiah’s words (cf. Luke 22:20) through his Passion. In addition, the New Testament calls Jesus the “mediator of a new covenant” (Hebrews 9:15; 12:24). He is the new Moses who establishes a new covenant between man and God, that all might receive forgiveness of sins and salvation. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we are granted the ability to resist temptation and live in true faithfulness to God in the new covenant he makes with us in his Son.

Second Reading Reflection

~Hebrews 5:7−9~

This short passage comes in a longer discussion of Jesus’s identity as high priest. The author is showing Jesus’s mediating role, as one who offers sacrifice and prayers on behalf of the people. As an example of his priestly identity, Hebrews cites Jesus’s “loud prayers and supplications,” which are usually linked with his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before he died. However, we could also point to Jesus’s other moments of prayer and especially his miracle-working power. We often think of Jesus as praying in Gethsemane to avoid the Cross, but here he is depicted as seeking to be saved from death itself, which matches the prayer of Psalm 116:1−4. Our reading sees Jesus as praying to be rescued from the grave, from death itself—and indeed this priestly prayer is answered on Easter Sunday, when Jesus rises from the dead, triumphing over the grave.

Hebrews explains that Jesus “learned obedience” and was “made perfect” through his Passion and Death. Since he is divine, this cannot mean that he was ignorant or imperfect. Rather, Jesus exhibits in his humanity the meaning of obedience by being perfectly docile to the will of his Father and the meaning of learning by actually undergoing the experience of severe suff ering. He is “made perfect” in that he completes his mission of sacrifi ce for our sake. Because of Jesus’s priestly sacrifi ce of himself on the Cross, we are granted access to salvation. His generosity in suff ering for us gives us a powerful example to follow and shows us the redemptive meaning of suff ering, a seemingly meaningless experience that can in fact save the world.

Gospel Reflection

~John 12:20-33~

This Gospel reading finds Jesus in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. A group of Greek worshippers, likely Greeks who regularly attended the synagogue, seek to speak with Jesus. When Jesus hears of it, since the inclusion of the Gentiles would be the final stage of God’s plan of salvation, he solemnly announces “the hour has come.” He means that the moment of the fulfillment of his earthly mission is at hand, the “hour” that had been delayed up until this point (2:4; 7:6, 8, 30; 8:20). Jesus cryptically predicts his own Death and Resurrection again with the metaphor of the wheat grain. He acknowledges a universal truth that applies in a particular way to himself at this time, that if you “love your life,” then you will lose it, but if you “hate your life,” you will keep it. He does not mean we should all be miserable but that we should be willing to lay down our lives, to “hate” our lives, for the sake of a greater purpose, for God’s glory. Jesus then notes his own emotional disturbance over the prospect of death (12:27) but resolves to go through with it. Indeed, he says “for this purpose I have come to this hour,” meaning that all of his messianic mission has been leading up to this point, the time of his Passion and Death. Once he affi rms his resolve, God speaks from Heaven for all to hear (v. 28). The witnesses marvel at the voice while Jesus explains he will be “lifted up” on the Cross as he had earlier indicated (3:14) and thus draw everyone to himself.

DIGGING DEEPER:

Obedience

Obedience is often thought of as a virtue for children towards their parents or other adults. As adults, we often dismiss it because we prefer to be independent. Without realizing it, in our grasp for independence, we make ourselves into a god. We know best; we call the shots; we don’t need to answer to anyone else. In today’s readings though, we see Jesus, who doesn’t WANT to suffer and experience pain but who tells us that he will follow the will of his Father in obedience, submitting his will to accept this suffering. Where in your life have you made yourself a god? How do you need to submit your will to God’s?

PRAYER:

Jesus is sharing with his disciples that his hour is coming. He is letting them know that he will soon be fulfi lling his purpose here on earth—to give his life for our sin. In sharing this with his disciples, he shares the secret to living a fulfi lled life. He tells us that in order to gain eternal life, we must allow ourselves to die. This seems backwards. He uses a metaphor of a grain of wheat. In order for it to bear fruit, it must fall to the ground, and then it will sprout up new life. What death of ourselves is God calling us to? What is holding us back from allowing that part of our lives to die? Are we scared of what will happen if we do? Will we lose control? Could it mean some suff ering for us? Ask Jesus for the grace to be courageous in trusting God and allow yourself to die to the world to gain eternal life in Heaven.

RESOLUTION: 

Even if you’ve fallen short on your Lenten penance, don’t give up now. With only a couple of weeks left, recommit yourself to your penance and allow yourself to experience a “death” to yourself through it.
 

Reprinted from  Opening the Word at Formed.org .
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