Fr Jack SJ MD: The Time is Close: Homily for the 5th Sunday of Lent

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 and the sole reason for Jesus incarnation and birth, a birth we celebrated three months ago. Next Sunday we will hear the chilling introduction: “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. The Church will commemorate the institution of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday. On Good Friday there will be another proclamation of Our Lord’s Passion, this time according to St. John. Then will follow the long peculiar emptiness of Holy Saturday that will end with the ecstatic joy of the Easter Vigil.

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. He dictated His conditions. We are free to accept or reject those conditions. We are not free to negotiate them or revise them to suit our taste, socio-political whims, or most recent trends.

God chose Israel without any merit on her part. Similarly, God has chosen us. Like Ancient Israel we are sinners. Like the Ancient Israelites we are sinners loved by God. God has given His love freely. We can only respond with a love

that translates into obedience to the conditions of that covenant. We heard the how of that obedience in today’s Gospel.

Jeremiah prophesied that the covenant would be reestablished. The covenant had to be reestablished because the Israelites, by worshiping foreign gods, had violated the old covenant in a manner resembling the betrayal of adultery within marriage. Unlike the old covenant inscribed on stone the new covenant would be inscribed on the human heart. That new covenant will change the heart on which it is inscribed. It will change it unless that heart chooses to reject the covenant and change itself into stone, scarred and pockmarked by sin.

The reading from Hebrews reminds us that Jesus, fully divine and fully human, was acquainted with the trials and sufferings of the human nature he shares with us. Next Sunday we will recall Jesus’ fear. Three times he prayed, “Abba . . . take this cup 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, and the sorrow of perceived abandonment

He knows our fear of death, dying, and abandonment, a fear that came true for too many during the bizarre pandemic precautions that ignored the needs of the dying thus, forcing them to die alone, bereft of any human contact,

and kept from the sacraments of confession and anointing of the sick.

Those who instituted the hysterical, irrational, and immoral policies are deserving of condemnation. They have much to answer for.

Today’s gospel from Chapter 12 of John begins by noting it was six days until the Passover. 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 gives final instructions to His followers. He tells us the how of our obedience. In the Revised Standard Version 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. Our actions must emerge from the Eucharist and all it demands.

In 1996 Fr. John McHugh, the Capuchin Franciscan chaplain at Dartmouth where I was teaching at the time, preached a challenging and squirm-inducing homily regarding the necessary response to those suffering from poverty. On the way out of the chapel 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 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 pray with the psalmist the great Miserere

"A clean heart create for me, O God,
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."

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While traveling home from N'Djamena, Chad in August 2014, I stopped in Ireland for ten days in large part to attend the Croke Park Classic, an every two or three year American university football game. Did not take camera to game, a very wise decision. But wandered around the city.