Mother Church invites us to celebrate Sunday, March 17, 2024, as the Fifth and the last Sunday of Lent – Year B. In the Entrance Antiphon, we pray: “Give me justice, O God, and defend my cause against the wicked; rescue me from deceitful and unjust men. You, O God, are my refuge. Amen.”
In the First Reading, the prophet Jeremiah, often referred to as the prophet of God’s anger, preaches a new covenant, which reflects a new relationship between God and man, one in which God forgives our sins and requires that we love and obey him from the depth of our hearts, and love one another as ourselves. In the Second Reading, the sacred writer of the Letter to the Hebrews defines the priesthood of Christ, as a man chosen from among men by God and who, because he is man, knows what the sufferings of his fellow men and women are. In his suffering, he prays to be raised by God even from death. In the Gospel, the evangelist John shows us an anguished Christ as he awaits his hour of persecution and death. His perfect calm is broken by thoughts of his Passion but he humbly submits himself to his Father’s will. In the Responsorial Psalm, the Psalmist is anxious for the forgiveness of his sins as he realizes that only a religion of the heart is pleasing to God. So, in the course of the Eucharist of this day, brothers and sisters, let us ask for the grace of forgiveness so that we too can learn to always forgive others their trespasses as God forgives us ours. It is only through forgiveness that God can give us a new heart and a new spirit.
First Reading: Jeremiah 31: 31-34.
The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke my covenant, and I had to show myself their master, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer will they need to teach their friends and relatives how to know the Lord. All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the Lord, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.
Comment
The prophet Jeremiah is the second of the Major Prophets; the first is Isaiah, the third Ezekiel, and the fourth Daniel. Jeremiah lived in Judah when Babylon was beginning to constitute a real threat to the Israelites (from 605 onward) until eventually, Jerusalem fell to the forces of Nebuchadnezzar (587 BC). This was followed by the massive deportation of the Jews, especially the ruling families of Israel, to Babylon. Jeremiah was well placed to see all these events and was familiar with the conditions in Judah after the deportation.
He was born into a priestly family and received his prophetic mission from God around 626 BC while still a young man. His ministry was to last for over forty years during which time he was never tired of reminding his people of their covenant obligations, warning successive kings of Israel and Judah that their infidelity to God would bring down God’s punishment on the whole nation.
There is a tradition that holds that after the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC, and the deportation to Babylon, Jeremiah remained behind for a while, but it was clear to him that the hopes for the future of the nation lay only in those who had gone into exile. Later, when a governor the Babylonians had placed in Jerusalem was assassinated, some Jews decided to flee to Egypt, and it is believed that they forcefully took Jeremiah with them. According to this tradition, he spent the rest of his life in Egypt, where he was eventually assassinated by his fellow Jews, and so his body is thought to lie buried on the African continent.
The passage of this day’s reading contains the core of Jeremiah’s message that has had the greatest influence on the New Testament and Christian teaching. The prophet begins by describing the old covenant, which was broken by the people’s sins. This old covenant carried the force of tradition because it was a pact made with the fathers. It was a sign that God had elected the Jewish people as his own and had rescued them from slavery, and it showed the Lord’s authority over his people.
The new pact, on the other hand, is something interior, heartfelt, and written upon their hearts, whereas the old covenant was written on tablets of stone (Ex 31:38). The new covenant is final because when, at the Last Supper, Jesus said the words of consecration over the chalice: “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant” (Lk 22:20), he brings Jeremiah’s words to fulfillment.
It is through this new covenant that the new people of God are redeemed. Christ instituted this new covenant in his Blood, calling together all people, Jew and Gentile alike, making them one, not according to the flesh but in the spirit.
We pray therefore for the grace of forgiveness which will enable us to partake fully in this new covenant which Christ Jesus has instituted for us. As we march towards the triumph of the cross and the joy of the Resurrection, let us ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen our faith and teach us to forgive one another forgives us our transgressions. We make this supplication through Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
Second Reading: Hebrews 5: 7-9.
In the days when Christ Jesus 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, and he was heard because of his reverence. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
Comments
The Epistle to the Hebrews is one of the most imposing and important books of the New Testament. Its main purpose is to show the superiority of Christianity over the Old Covenant. It is designed to show that the New Law is the perfection, that is, the fulfillment of the Old Law, which it supersedes.
The central theme of this letter is Christ as high priest, the only perfect priest. His priesthood is on a much higher plane than that of the priests of Old, that is, the Levitical priesthood. However, Christ came with the very purpose of taking this ancient institution and transforming it into a new, eternal priesthood. Every Christian priest is, as it were, Christ’s instrument or an extension of his sacred humanity. Christian priests do not act in their name, nor are they mere representatives of the people: they act in the name of Christ. It is Christ who is acting through them using their words and gestures. This means that the Christian priesthood is intimately linked to the priesthood of Christ.
The brief passage selected for our meditation summarizes Christ’s perfect obedience to his Father’s will, his intense prayer, his sufferings, and his redemptive death. The point is made that Christ set his power aside and, despite his being the only begotten Son of God, he still chose the cross out of obedience. His death was a true self-offering expressed in his loud voice when he cried out to his Father just before his death “Into thy hands, I commit my spirit” (Lk 23:46).
This passage also points to Christ’s prayer, the high point of which occurred in Gethsemane on the eve of his passion. The reference to loud cries and supplications recalls the Gospel accounts of Christ’s passion. “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling upon the ground” (Lk 22:44).
This passage emphasizes the importance of prayer in my daily life. Seeing how much Christ has suffered for me, I should, as Saint Ignatius of Loyola advises, ask myself daily, “what I have done for Christ; what I should be doing for Christ; and what I am doing for him now.” With Saint Augustine, I pray: “Give us, Lord, your Christ. Let us see your Christ, not as his contemporaries saw him and crucified him but as the angels see him and rejoice. Amen”.
Gospel acclamation: “Whoever serves me must follow me, says the Lord; and where I am, there too will my servant be.”
Gospel: John 12: 20-33.
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. "Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say--' Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him." Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.
Comment
Jesus is now in Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. The Passover was the most solemn Jewish feast and people used to arrive in Jerusalem some days in advance to prepare for it by washings, fasts, and offerings in the Temple. The rites of the Passover itself, with the sacrificing of the lamb, were a rite of purification and expiation for sins. The Passover of the Jews was a figure of the Christian Pasch or Easter, for, as Saint Paul the Apostle teaches us, our paschal lamb is Christ (1 Cor 5:7), who offered himself once and for all to the eternal Father on the cross to atone for our sins.
In Jerusalem, our Lord’s clash with the Jewish authorities has now degenerated into an open confrontation, especially after Jesus expels the money changers from the Temple, as we saw two Sundays ago. Shortly before the passage of this day’s Gospel, Jesus has raised his friend Lazarus from the dead and the news of this great event has spread rapidly among the people of Judea and everyone, especially those who have traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover, are all talking about it and many of them are beginning to believe in Jesus (Jn 11: 45).
This is not good news for the Pharisees and Scribes who are now even more determined than ever, not only to kill Jesus but also Lazarus “because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus” (Jn 12:11). Many others now come looking and asking for him openly and we assume it is more out of curiosity than faith. That is perhaps the case of the Greeks, who ask Philip to lead them to Christ (Jn 12: 20ff).
This is an important moment in salvation history because people of non-Jewish culture are beginning to come in search of Christ as well: they can therefore be considered the first fruits of the spread of the Christian faith in the pagan world. This is a clear indication that despite the persecution of our Lord, his word is beginning to make a home in the hearts, minds, and souls of non-Jews as well.
But our Lord’s hour is now at hand when he must face the loss of his freedom, the loss of his friends, the loss of support even from those he has been counting on most, and the loss of his own life. It is therefore not surprising that all this loss troubles him since he is also human, a man like us in everything but sin (Heb 14:16).
The Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke speak of Jesus’ agony on the Mount of Olives, how he anguished over his approaching death, hoping and praying that it might be the Father’s will to avoid the violent consequences of the mission. In John’s Gospel, however, there is no agony scene. Jesus is troubled but he rejects the temptation of asking his Father to save him from what is to come: “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But it was for this very reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name” (Jn 12: 27).
Here, Jesus realizes that the pain and the loss cannot be avoided if the Father’s name is to be glorified. There is going to be gain from the pain; there is going to be glory from the way of the cross. The way of the cross, which appears as a possibility at the beginning of Christ’s ministry, now presents itself as inevitable. His hour has truly come.
But, Jesus’ loss is our gain. His radical act of self-giving stands at the very heart of the Christian story. Without this sacrifice and the ensuing resurrection, there will be no Christianity. Jesus is the grain of wheat that dies to bear much fruit. That is why the cross has such prominence wherever Christians gather. The great loss of Jesus’ life has become in time the ground of our hope. It points the way to the reality of Easter.
What lesson can we take home from this reading? We, as Christians, should know that Christ has, through his passion and death, overcome death and so we need not fear death anymore. The Gospels tell us that Jesus, who called his friend Lazarus back to earthly life, has the power to give eternal life. He tells Martha, who is grieving for her brother Lazarus: “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall live, and whoever believes in me shall never die” (Jn 11: 25-26).
Jesus is the resurrection because by his victory over death, he is the cause of the resurrection of all men and women. So, by his faith in Jesus, a Christian is sure that he too will rise one day, like Christ (1 Cor 15:23). Without Christ, we are finished. Eternal life is not a future event, it is here and now. We only need to spread love around us and we will rise with Christ at his Resurrection.
Let us pray with Saint Augustine: “Lord, our Mediator, God above us, human for our sake, I acknowledge your mercy. In your love for us, you chose to be greatly troubled. Now you can console the members of your body who, by their weakness, are compelled to be troubled and to keep them from perishing in despair.” We make our supplication through Christ, the risen Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one god forever and ever. Amen.
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