Fifth Sunday of Lent
Jeremiah 31:31-34;
Hebrews 5: 7 -9;
John 12: 20-33;
Death leads to life. In the Gospel, Jesus talks about the the death of a grain of wheat. It’s only by falling into the soil and dying that the grain can eventually yield a rich harvest. And just as the grain of wheat dies in order to produce new life, so must Jesus, as He prays to be saved from this hour, yet readily accepts that this is His hour, the very reason for His coming to earth in a body like ours.
Without faith, the events of Jesus’ death are meaningless or crazy. There are many people all around us - sadly, a majority - for whom His death means nothing, because they don’t have the vision of the centurion who found belief at the very moment of Jesus’ death.
The Greek inquirers approached Philip and Andrew to find out more about Jesus. Now we must show who Jesus really is and what He has done for us, and for the rest of our world. With faith we can show Him to other people: through the Word being proclaimed from the Lectern at Mass, through the Sacraments, but perhaps most of all in the various events of our lives and those of others, however bitter or sorrowful.
The new generation of TV programmes about nature and wildlife offers us some fantastic high definition images - close-ups using zoom lenses or drones to photograph from enormous distances - night vision cameras using infrared or ultraviolet light to see objects formerly invisible now providing almost daylight clarity.
Infrared light enables us to see in the dark; faith is our spiritual infra-red light which likewise extends, deepens and opens our vision and our hearts. Faith helps us see that no one is remote to God, or beyond His power to save. Throughout Lent, we’ve been trying to give up something as an outward expression of inward transformation.
So Lent is about changing whatever is blocking the fullness of life in us right now. It may not simply be material things of which we’re called to let go: we may need to let go of attitudes, compulsions, automatic responses to situations. Now, in these final two weeks of Lent, lets realise that it’s not a journey that we make on our own: look ahead and realise Jesus is already there, and where He has gone, one day we hope to follow.