5th Sunday of Lent

 

5^th LENT SUNDAY, 21 MARCH 2021: JER 31. 31-34; HEB 5. 7-9; JOHN 12. 20-33

Focus: True life of following Christ is not a matter of the convenient, but is a commitment. This means to enter into a new covenant with Him and serving Him in fidelity

1.      The whole story of humanity is an unceasing saga of God’s love. It is a love that is marked by intimacy, mercy and fidelity. It is a love that sustains an inseparable bonding, like that between husband and spouse. It is a love that nurtures the deepest belonging which assures untiringly: I am Your God and You are My people. It is a love that enters into a new covenant that puts His law within them, writes it upon their hearts and deepens their knowledge and experience of it.

2.      It is a love that mercifully forgives and forgets all their iniquities. It is a love that is ever faithful in spite of all our infidelities. It is in this same intimate, merciful and faithful love that God sends His only Son to be the incarnate Saviour.

3.      This love shows itself in solidarity with humanity stung by sin and misery. It suffers for our sake. And finally, it climaxes in obedience to God’s will and salvific plan, even by dying on the cross.

4.      In response to such a love of God, what is our duty? We are called to serve Him and follow Him. In the light of the gospel imagery, it is to be like a grain of wheat. A grain falls into the ground, undergoes a dying process of struggle of change, sprouts up and grows and finally bears abundant fruit.

5.      This implies a whole life of sacrifice and service, a death to self and life and fruit for others. It is a covenantal and committed life of self-emptying and self-giving. In a world where the spirit of sacrifice and service is rapidly diminishing, and a culture of greed and grabbing, domination and subjugation is flourishing, the only remedy is a love that empties itself and gives itself generously and selflessly to others.

6.      True it is, such a sacrificing and serving love is very challenging and testing. But, it is not a vain battle. The Lord clearly assures us that God will honour and glorify us. We will share the same heavenly glory and eternal communion with God. However, it is not a diplomatic baiting or wooing the followers. Rather, it is instilling a new confidence, infusing a new courage, inducing a new hope and impelling a new energy.

Direction: Our life is worth living, when it is lived out with more humility, nobility and fidelity. All these become possible when they are soaked into the single spring, and that is a humble and loyal love.