Jer 31:31-34
Ps 51
Heb 5:7-9
Jn 12:20-33
We are rapidly moving toward the singular event in Jesus’
life. We are moving toward the reason
for the Incarnation that we celebrated three months ago. Next Sunday we will hear the chilling
introduction to the Gospel: The Passion
of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark.
Throughout the rest of Holy Week we will recall the most important event
in the history of the world; we will recall the most important event for our
lives; we will move from the institution
of the Eucharist, through another hearing of Our Lord’s Passion, to the long
peculiar emptiness of Holy Saturday to the ecstatic joy of the Easter Vigil when
we will hear again the forging of the Old Covenant and sing Alleluia, He is
Risen, in celebration of the New.
The covenant God formed with His people was not, and is not, a
pact between equals. It was not, is not,
and never will be a democracy. God
decided in freedom to grant His allegiance to Israel and dictated His own
conditions. We are free to accept or
reject those conditions. We are not free
to negotiate them to suit our taste. God chose Israel without any merit on its
part. God has chosen us without any
merit on our own parts. Like Ancient
Israel we are sinners. But we are
sinners loved by God. God has given his
love freely. We can only respond with a
love that translates itself into obedience to the conditions of that
covenant. We heard the how of that
obedience in today’s Gospel.
In Jeremiah we heard a prophecy that the covenant would be
reestablished. The covenant had to be
reestablished because the Israelites, by worshiping foreign gods, had violated
the first covenant in a manner like the total betrayal when adultery violates
the marriage covenant. The difference is
that the new covenant won’t be inscribed on stone. It will be inscribed on the human heart. And that new covenant inscribed on the human
heart will change it. It will change it
unless that heart chooses to reject the covenant and become stone.
The reading from Hebrews reminds us that Jesus, fully divine
and fully human, was acquainted with the trials and suffering of our
nature. Next Sunday we will recall
Jesus’ fear. Three times he prayed,
“Abba . . . take this cup away from me.”
And three times he offered his obedience, “But not what I will but what
you will.”
After his exaltation Jesus no longer knows weakness. But, having experienced weakness: fear of
death, fear of pain, fear of dying, and
the sorrow of abandonment, he knows our fear of death, dying, pain and
abandonment. Truly God. Yes.
And truly human, like us in all things but sin.
John’s Gospel picks up as Jesus approached the final days of
His life on earth. The next chapter
begins with the words, “Now before the
feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of
this world to the Father . . . . “
Jesus is giving his final instructions to his
followers. In this instruction we hear
the how of our obedience. In the Revised
Standard Edition translation one hears: “If
any one serves me he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be
also; if anyone serves me, the Father will honor him." Confessing Jesus, believing in Him as Son of
God, as Revealer of the Father, and Messiah is not an intellectual or mental
exercise. Faith in Jesus is not something to pull out when convenient, or just
for holidays. It is not something one can store on a shelf.
Back around 1996 Fr. John, the Franciscan chaplain at
Dartmouth College, preached a challenging and squirm-inducing homily at the heavily
attended 11 AM Mass. While leaving Mass
I overheard a young woman telling a classmate in response to Father's
challenge, “I don’t want my religion to influence my political and economic
decisions.” The absurdity of that
comment is right up there with, “I’m very spiritual but not at all
religious.” Those who claim to serve the
Lord must follow Him in the service of His Father. They do that by the totality
of their obedience to the Father and in their love for one another.
Jesus’ words: “where I am, there shall my servant be also”
radically alter our understanding of death.
Prior to Jesus' act of obedience, death was a descent into Sheol, the
dank and dismal habitation of the dead.
Henceforth, the death of those who serve and follow the Lord is an
ascent to the Father where the Son also is.
Thus we can say with the psalmist in today’s responsorial, the great Miserere
"A
clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me. . . .
and a steadfast spirit renew within me. . . .
Give
me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners shall return to you."
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners shall return to you."
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Today is the first full day of spring. It has been a very long winter. We got an additional inch or so of snow this AM. Very wet but very little. Temps going up. Roads no problem. Mass this afternoon and again in the AM. One question preoccupies me. Where have all the flowers gone? The secondary question is whether or not they will ever return. The attached photos without commentary were taken in a variety of places both in and out of the U.S.
+Fr. Jack, SJ, MD
