May your celebration of the Eucharist strengthen your relationship with the Risen Christ that you not only accept mentally his message but also follow his life of sacrificial love especially on behalf of the needy neighbor.
DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Jeremiah 31,31-34; Hebrew 5,7-9; John 12, 20-33; 5th Sunday of Lent: Year B, 18th March 2018)
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. With this short parable Jesus describes the meaning and value of his redemptive death; it was a death that was neither a failure nor a defeat but rather a source and cause of life for humanity. Drawing the imagery of this parable from simple agricultural life, it was a common sense knowledge that a grain of wheat sown in the soil must, first of all, dry up, die, rot and be completely destroyed before it germinates, by which it brings up a new ear that contains many turgid grain wheat. Jesus is like that grain of wheat that died in order to bring much fruit; he offered his life in order to be the cause of salvation for all who obey him as the second reading of today put it. Jesus was able to realise this through his passion and death on the cross. According to the Evangelist John his death on the cross, humanly speaking that looked like a defeat, rather became the instrument of his exaltation and glorification; of the defeat of Satan and judgment of the world. The hour of the cross was the hour of the glorification of both the Father and the Son. Jesus prayed in today’s gospel: Father glorify your name. By allowing Jesus to pass through the agony of the cross God further proved his love for humanity and demonstrated his will to save the world. His will to save humanity was first made manifest in his sending his Son: God so much loved the world that he gave (sacrificed) his Son… But God did not abandon the Son to death; he resuscitated him from death. Through the resurrection of Christ, God the Father was glorified and his generosity and omnipotence manifested. The passion of the cross was also the hour of the glorification of the Son. Jesus exclaimed: Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Jesus has earlier enunciated that no love was greater than to give/sacrifice one’s life for the other (John 15,13). Christ’s dying for men on the cross at Calvary shows how his love reached its limit. It is also to be noted that the death of Jesus on the cross was the introduction to, and the prelude of his complete and definitive glorification that was accomplished at his resurrection and ascension into heaven. This is to say that the fact of his death on the cross kicked off of his triumph and glorification on earth. He affirms in today’s gospel reading: And when I am lifted up on earth, I shall draw all men to myself. Those Greeks who wanted to see Jesus in the gospel reading of today were the first fruit of the millions of souls whom he attracts to himself.
Besides the fact that the passion was the hour of the glorification and exaltation of the Father and the Son, it was also that of the glorification and exaltation for men. In so far as the cross is a way and passage that leads to the resurrection, the death of Jesus on the cross assures people that it is not death but life, not the wickedness of men but the goodness of God, not sin but grace that eventually conquers. Man’s existence is not destined to end in nothingness/annihilation but it is to continue after the mortal death in the fullness of life; human suffering is not useless and sterile, but united with that of Christ it becomes the source of merit and glory.
The hour of the cross is the hour of the defeat of Satan. Jesus affirms in today’s gospel: Now the prince of this world is to be overthrown. Satan is named the prince of this world because before the passion he reigns more or less supreme in some parts of humanity. But at that very point of the passion and death of Christ on the cross, he was no more the uncontested ruler of the world. The resurrection of Christ signaled his clamorous defeat. It is in virtue of this that humanity has the possibility and grace of not succumbing to the insidious seduction of the tempter. The hour of the cross is also that of the judgment of the world. Here is not for the final judgment but the judgment that takes place in the present, and with regard to the unbelieving world that is hostile to Jesus. The judgment consists in man’s attitude, who refusing to believe turns himself away from the love of God, thereby cuts himself from God and remains slave of death. It is man himself who judges and passes judgment on himself; a sort of self-condemnation. As soon as Christ attained the glory of the resurrection there was no other way of being saved except through belief in him. This fact is succinctly stated in two expressions: He who believes in him is not condemned (John 3,18) and Who believes in the Son has eternal life (John 3, 36).
Belief in Christ, however, is not just mental adhesion to his messages. It is imitating him and following his way, the way of the cross and carrying ones cross. No one is exempt from any type of suffering, be it physical, moral or both in this life. They become ways leading to glory if we humbly welcome them as the will of God and unite them to the sufferings of Christ. In the gospel of today Jesus advises: If a man serves me, he must follow me, wherever I am, my servant will be there too. As Christians and disciples of Jesus we are called to relive/live again the mystery of Christ and become like him, a grain of wheat that must die (to selfishness, pride, bad habits/vices, bad inclinations, etc) in order to produce much fruit. Furthermore, we are called to hate our lives in this world in order to posses eternal life. Here hatred is not in the sense of developing aversion for life (this would be against nature) but it is to be taken to mean not preferring or rating mundane realities superior to those celestial, material interests to spiritual ones or the present life that passes to the future one that is eternal. We should be disposed to loose on the material and terrestrial platform in order to gain on the spiritual and supernatural levels. We should also be ready to risk much in order to remain faithful to Christ and his gospel messages and even offer our lives, if necessary, for the good of the other. Let us therefore ask the good Lord in today’s Eucharistic celebration for the grace to strain ourselves with much efforts in order to go through the narrow gate of the cross and to walk on this tight road that leads to life (Matthew 8, 14). Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye
(pictures by chukwubike oc)
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