FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT (2024)

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT (2024)

Readings:

Jeremiah   31:31-34

Psalms 51:3-4, 12-15

Hebrews   5:7-9

In the first reading the prophet Jeremiah is trying to instill some genuine hope in his listeners, provoking them to look forward to a time when the Lord “will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”  It is not going to be like the covenants made with Noah, Abraham, and Moses, covenants that were broken over and over again.  The “new covenant” will not be written on tablets of stone, for God “will place the law within them and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  No longer will they have to teach their friends and relatives how to know the Lord.”

That last sentence from Jeremiah is a profound statement, especially for those who have attended catechism, or shul in the Jewish tradition.  Why would Jeremiah think there will be no need to teach people how “to know the Lord?”  Because the covenant bond will lie deep within us, engraved on our hearts, and as such it will be visible in all of our actions, in all that we do.  It should be able to be said of us that in meeting us a person has met the Lord, has seen a bit of God’s loving care and compassion, has recognized a holiness that could only have its origin in the God who created all things and sent His only Son into our world that we might have eternal life.

The famous Psalm 50, which is our responsorial psalm for this Sunday, reminds us of our sinfulness, reminds us above all of God’s mercy, goodness, and compassion.  Here too, in spite of our sinfulness, we will teach “transgressors [God’s] ways, and sinners will return” to God.  It is by our example that we will teach others who God is and what God expects of them.   No one should be confused by the letter to the Hebrews which speaks of Jesus “being made perfect.”  Jesus did, indeed, share fully in our humanity, but the ‘perfection’ spoken of in Hebrews has nothing to do with the overcoming of sin, as it does with us ordinary human beings.  Rather, Jesus’ life is made perfect on the cross, in that ultimate act of obedience to the Father’s will.  To say that Jesus was “made perfect” implies no shortcomings, or anything that He was lacking.  From the moment of His birth to His death on the cross, Jesus was fully God and fully man.  His “perfection” lies in the completion of God’s will, by which “He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him.”

It is this ‘salvific’ moment which Jesus speaks of in the twelfth chapter of John’s gospel: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.  Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.  Who ever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.”

In words that sound as though Jesus is trying to convince His disciples of the rightness of what is about to happen: “What should I say?  ‘Father, save me from this hour’?  But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.  Father, glorify your name.” Jesus speaks with the familiarity of a Son, and, as at His baptism and Transfiguration, a voice thunders from the heavens: “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.”  This entire episode in John was meant to convince the crowds (among which there were many Gentiles), and the readers of John’s gospel, of just who this preacher from Nazareth truly is.  The new covenant, foretold by Jeremiah the prophet, is fulfilled in Jesus the Christ.

Like Jesus we are meant to be drawn to and motivated by the overwhelming love of God who can bring good, the salvation of all men and woman, out of what appears to be evil.  If we are worshipping a God solely because we are in hopes of that God delivering us from punishment or harm, then we are worshipping the wrong God.  Jesus’ ignominious death on the cross is redeemed by a God whose love conquers death and raises Him from the dead.  The various grains of wheat which make up who we are must suffer and die in order that they can blossom into what God intends.  Jesus tells His disciples, and us, what we don’t often want to hear – that if we follow in the footsteps of Jesus, we too will be “lifted up” on a cross, fashioned by a loving God, who will never let us down, just as He did not let His only begotten Son down.  This is what faith tells us is true.