5th Sunday of Lent (Cycle B)

March 29, 2009

by Reverend Deacon Lawrence A. St. Onge

      We are just a week away from Holy Week and our celebration of God’s love for us in his passion, death and resurrection. In today’s gospel some Greeks who had come to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, say to the disciple Phillip, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” When the request is ultimately relayed to Jesus, his response seems somewhat strange as he says:  “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified…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.” A grain of wheat, or a seed, as we know of course, does not actually die when it is put into the ground, but is totally transformed into something completely different and new: with roots, leaves and fruit. In a similar manner a caterpillar let’s go of being a caterpillar to become transformed into something altogether different and much more beautiful – a moth or a butterfly.

      This incident of the Greeks asking to see Jesus is a turning point in St. John’s gospel. Previously, as at the wedding feast at Cana, Jesus had always said that his hour had not yet come. But now, through the symbolic presence of the Greeks representing the Gentiles, Jesus will be able to draw everyone to himself – Gentiles as well as Jews, people today, as well as the people of Jesus’ day. Those who follow him, Jesus promises, will be where he is, and the Father will honor them.

      To really see Jesus is not just to look at him, which is what those Greeks presumably wanted. To truly see Jesus is to enter totally into his way of thinking, to understand why he had to suffer and die and rise again. Like the grain of wheat, Jesus had to let go of everything, including his own life, in order to bring life to himself and many others. In the process, both he and we will be transformed. And if we cannot see this at the core of Jesus’ life, we have not really and truly seen him. And if we want to be close to Jesus, we have to walk his Way. He says: “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.” It means we must walk with Jesus all the way to Calvary, wherever that happens to be for each of us.

      The question is: Are we ready for that? Are we afraid to let everything go? Is Jesus asking too much of us? None of us should have any doubt that Jesus himself was deeply afraid of his coming passion and death. We hear his words: “Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say: Father, save me from this hour?” In today’s second reading from Hebrews we hear it put graphically: “In the days when he was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death…” Our human life is indeed very precious to us, and perhaps our deepest human instinct is for its survival. We often seek power and possessions to secure it. We seek pleasures to enjoy it. We seek honors to assure ourselves of its worth. Jesus, too, faced the temptation to make the preservation of his own life his supreme value.

      Letting go did not come any more easily to Jesus than it does to us. But in prayer, however, he recognized the presence of the Father’s eternal life dwelling in him. And so, in his prayer, when he sweated blood in fear and trembling, he was able to say “yes” to the Father’s will. He committed himself to his Father’s will even if it meant he would die. “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered;” and, as a result, “he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” Jesus says at the end of today’s gospel: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” “Lifted up” refers both to the cross and to the glory of the Father where we are invited to follow.

      There is a true story about a man named Sundar who lived in the northernmost section of India in the Himalayan Mountains. He had been a member of the Sikh religion, but had converted to Christianity. One day during the cold of winter, Sundar was traveling on foot with a Buddhist monk to a monastery high in the mountains. Suddenly the weather changed, the temperature dropped and the journey became dangerous. As night was coming on, the weather became even worse. There was a very good chance that Sundar and the monk would freeze to death.

      As they crossed over a narrow path above a steep cliff, they heard someone crying out for help. Underneath them, another traveler had fallen, and lay deep down in a ravine. The monk warned Sundar: “do not stop. God has brought this man to his fate. He must work it out himself. That is our tradition. We must hurry on ourselves before we die.” Sundar responded, “it is my tradition that God has brought me here to help my brother. I cannot abandon him.”

      So Sundar went down into the ravine. Meanwhile, the monk hurried on alone. When Sundar came upon the injured man, he found that the man had broken his leg. Sundar made a simple sling and hauled the man onto his back. Sundar struggled, but was able to carry the man up the path. He could feel his body overheating, but he continued to carry the man. Unrealized by Sundar, they were warmed by each other’s body. Perspiring hard and almost fainting, Sundar finally caught sight of the monastery. When they were only a few hundred yards away from the monastery, Sundar suddenly stumbled and fell. He had fallen over the body of the dead monk who had left him. The monk had frozen to death within sight of the monastery. As he brushed the snow away from the monk’s body, Sundar remembered the words of today’s gospel: “The one who would save his life, will lose it. The one who would lose his life for my sake will find it.” Sundar had been saved by doing what Jesus did: Giving over His life so others might live.

      When we are united to Jesus, His hour becomes our hour. When we are united to Jesus we participate in the life of the One who is eternal.

      The journey of our lives is a journey to make His hour our hour. When Jesus uses the phrase hour, he isn’t merely referring to the time of day. No, he is speaking about a central moment of human history. The hour is the moment that the world will be transformed. The hour is the moment when death and evil will be defeated by Love. The hour is the moment when the mortal will receive immortality.

      We are in that hour. We are the continuing Presence of the Savior in the world. This is why the purpose of our lives is to realize and to make real, the love of Christ in our homes and in our lives. We have to allow Christ’s love to direct our lives. His hour is our hour. “He died for us so that we may die for Him.”