Happy
Sunday!
(Jeremiah
31, 31-34; Hebrew 50, 7-9; John 12, 20-33; 5th Sunday of Lent, 21st March 2021)
On this Sunday the liturgy presents us with an evocative Gospel passage, which announces the spread of faith in Christ even among the pagans. The Gospel speaks of Greeks - not Jews - who want to see Jesus. The second reading takes up this perspective and deepens it with the description of the passion of Jesus and his gesture of salvation for all men. The first reading announces the new covenant, a universal covenant: Everyone will know me, says God.
The Gospel relates to us an episode from the last period of Jesus' public life. He is in Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover, which will be his Passover of death and resurrection, and some Greeks have gone up for worship during this feast. They were certainly religious men, attracted by the faith of the Jews in one God, heard of Jesus and now wish to see him. They approach Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who has a Greek name (Philip means friend of the horses) and comes from Galilee, a district in which there are many pagans and, therefore called Galilee of peoples, and they ask him: Lord, we want to see Jesus. Philip goes to tell Andrew, another apostle who has a Greek name and very close to Jesus, because he was one of the first to be called. Both of them go and tell Jesus. Jesus' reaction is surprising. He says neither yes nor no, but declares: The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. In the Greeks request to see him, Jesus recognised his hour, the hour of his glorification. In fact, his glorification also includes this aspect of spreading the faith among the pagans. And at the end of the passage Jesus will say: When I am lifted up from the earth, I will attract everyone to me. Jesus’ glorification is in the power to give eternal life to all who believe in him. Two important aspects of this glorification are, the spread of faith in him and the salvation obtained, precisely, through this faith. But Jesus knows very well that the hour of his glorification also means the hour of his passion. In fact, his glorification takes place through passion; for this he must be lifted from the ground. And the evangelist comments: This he said to indicate the type of death he was to undergo. A man condemned to die on the cross is lifted from the ground to the cross, and Jesus must be lifted from the ground. But this torturous elevation is the beginning of a much greater elevation for him: his glorification in heaven. Thus, Jesus makes us understand that the conversion of the Greeks, that is, of the pagans, requires his passion. He must die as a ransom for the multitude, to make it possible for the pagans to become the people of God. Jesus speaks of his paschal mystery with an image: If the grain that falls to the ground does not die, it remains alone; if instead it dies, it produces a lot of fruit. Jesus compares himself to a grain of wheat. With the incarnation he came to earth; but this is not enough: he must also die, in order to have universal fruitfulness. This same law also applies to the disciples. In fact, Jesus afterwards says: Whoever loves his life loses it and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for the eternal life. The thought of the Passion interiorly upsets Jesus, who confesses: Now my soul is troubled. How is one not to be shocked when one thinks of all the humiliations, sufferings and the death that the Passion of Jesus entails! Here it is presented to us as Jesus’ brief, intense agony. He asks himself: What must I say? The spontaneous request that arises in the human heart in the face of humiliations and sufferings is that of being saved. Therefore, Jesus says: Father, save me from this hour. But is this exactly what he must ask? Jesus overcomes this first human reaction, and affirms: For this I have come to this hour! Father, glorify your name. Instead of asking for salvation for himself, he asks for the glorification of the Father's name. This transformation of his question corresponds to what the Synoptics tell us. Matthew says that at the beginning Jesus asks the Father that this hour may pass away from him: My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me! (Matt 26,39) (cf. Father, save me from this hour, in John 12,27), but in the end he says: Father, ... your will be done (Matt 26,42) (cf. Father, glorify your name! in John 12,28). And in the prayer, Our Father, Jesus taught us to ask: Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done (Matt 6, 9). These are, therefore, Jesus’ desires in the face of his passion: he does not think of saving his own life, thinks of the glory of the Father and the salvation of the whole world. After these words of Jesus comes a sign from heaven, a voice from heaven that says: I glorified him and I will glorify him again! It is a sign that many do not understand: some say that it is a thunder, others of an angel who spoke to Jesus, But Jesus explains: This voice did not come for my sake, but for your own sake. Now is the judgment of this world; now the prince of this world [the devil] will be thrown out. When I will be lifted from the earth, I will attract all to me. Here is the perspective of Jesus’ paschal mystery, which this passage of the Gospel presents to us as we approach Easter.
The second reading, taken from the Letter to the Hebrews, reveals to us the way in which Jesus faces his passion. He finds himself in a situation of extreme anguish, due to the death that threatens him, and offers prayers and supplications to God. This makes us understand that we too, when we find ourselves in a situation of suffering, must offer prayers and supplications to God. Jesus not only prays, but cries and weeps: he offers prayers and supplications to God with loud cries and tears. This happens not only in agony, but also on the cross, when he gives a loud cry before dying (cf. Mark 15,37). Jesus prays to the one who can free him from death. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews does not say that Jesus asks to be freed from death. He suggests, but he also leaves room for that transformation of the demand which, as we have seen, is present in the Gospels and which Matthew expresses very clearly (cf. Matt 26,39.42.44). Jesus does not impose on God the choice of the means of salvation. There are several ways of being saved from death; the first is to be preserved from mortal danger.
The second is that of being freed from death and return to life: dying and then resurrecting thanks to a miracle, as happened to Lazarus.
The third and most radical way is that of a complete and definitive victory over death; through death itself, to rise again to a new life, no longer mortal, but heavenly, in the intimacy of God. This is the full and definitive victory over death. death that Jesus obtained. In fact, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews states: [Jesus] was heard for his piety, that is, because he left the choice of the solution to his distressing situation to God. Thus, Jesus teaches us that when we pray, we must leave always to God the choice of the solution of our situation. God's solution will always be better than what we, with our limited minds, can think of. Although Jesus is the Son, he learns obedience from the things he suffers. His passion puts him in a situation of extreme human poverty, which affects his mind and heart and allows him to practice obedience in a total and perfect way. Thus, his availability becomes a proven virtue, because he has passed through difficulties and sufferings. It is only possible to learn obedience. Jesus submits to this law of human nature. The result of this attitude has value for Jesus himself, but also for all of us. Jesus with his human nature becomes the perfect man, fully united with God in glory. At the same time, he becomes the cause of eternal salvation for all those who obey him, without any limitation. Thus, his passion gives everyone - not only Jews, but also pagans - the possibility of being saved completely, for eternity.
The first reading makes us understand that this was God's plan. In the most terrible moment in the history of the Jewish people, who showed themselves to be rebellious, causing a catastrophe (the destruction of the temple, the taking of Jerusalem and the exile), the Lord, instead of renouncing his plan of covenant with his people, announces a new covenant, much more beautiful than that of Sinai: Here are the days in which with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah I conclude a new covenant. God specifies that it will be a different covenant from that of Sinai: Not like the covenant I concluded with their fathers, when I took them by hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, a covenant that they violated, although I was their Lord. This new alliance will be universal. This is not, explicitly, said by Jeremiah, but by Jesus, who shows that this new covenant is universal because it is not founded on race, nation, but on the intimate union with God. The Lord then affirms: I will lay my law in their souls, I will write it on their hearts. The first covenant, that of Sinai, gave the people a law written on stone tablets. This was the law of one people, a limited law, and a law that did not change the heart of man, but left him in his wickedness. It was, therefore, a beautiful alliance in itself, but ineffective. The new covenant, on the other hand, will not be limited to a single people, but will be the union of wills and hearts with God. It will be an interior covenant, which changes every believer from within. The Lord affirms: They should not instruct one another anymore, saying: know the Lord, because everyone will know me, from the smallest to the greatest. Scripture speaks of knowing the Lord in the sense of having a personal, profound, intimate relationship with him. Knowing the Lord does not only mean knowing that he exists, but it means having a personal relationship with him, a relationship that radically changes one's existence. God founds this new covenant on the forgiveness of sins. He says in fact: I will forgive their iniquities and I will not remember their sins anymore. Jesus died for our sins, and God's forgiveness was offered to all men: not only to the Jews, but also to the pagans. The new covenant is offered to all: a covenant written in hearts, a covenant whose only law is that of universal love. With it, all limits and barriers are removed and everyone can know God intimately, and all are united with each other, thanks to the love that God infuses in their hearts. The Passion of Jesus is an extraordinary event that changed the religious situation of men. It is a love event. Jesus loved us to the point of giving his life for us. His is a universal love, which has the scope to radically, transform our minds and hearts, granting us an effective union with God and wall our brothers. +John I. Okoye
(graphics by Chukwubike)
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