| |
 |
| |
Homilies are posted no later than during the week
prior to the Sunday they are needed |
| |
5 Lent
|
Fifth Sunday of Lent - Cycle B - John 12:20-33
Socrates was sitting on a park bench. A cop asked
him, "Who are you?" He answered, "I wish to God I knew."
Egypt's King Tutankhamen left us his golden
furniture and jewels, but he is dead. The Nazarene left us no golden
toys, but He lives. The answer to this riddle is locked in this Gospel.
No other Gospel contains the story of the
Greek travelers. That is not surprising. John's work was written to
present Christ to the Greeks and Gentiles. His Jesus was designed for
export.Nor is it surprising to
find Greeks in Jerusalem. The Greeks were inveterate wanderers. They
had an insatiable desire to see fresh places and taste new ideas. They
also had the dollars. They were yesterday's jet set. The Greek tourists
were smart. The time to be in Jerusalem was Passover. Then they would
get all the action and color they wanted.
The Greeks may have seen some of the miracles worked
by the Christ in Jerusalem. They may have witnessed Him driving the
bankers out of the Temple. Surely they had heard of His triumphal
entrance into Jerusalem. Is it any wonder then that they wanted to pull
up chairs with our Christ? They were as inquisitive about Him as we
are. Besides, they suspected such an outspoken person would not live
long.
They chose the apostle Philip as their
messenger. They liked
his Greek name. Their famous line "Sir, we should like to see Jesus!"
has been echoed by billions since the Greeks spoke it.
But Philip broke into a sweat at their request. Did the Master want to
chat with these foreigners? They had no appointment.
Timidly Philip threw the ball into Andrew's
court. He set up the rendezvous immediately. He had learned long before
that the Teacher had time for everybody. You need no appointment. He
has no voice mail, no cell phone, no peeper. He takes all calls
immediately. He is on the job 7/24/365. He's just a prayer away.
Besides Jesus was delighted at the arrival of the
Greeks. The Wise Men from the East at His birth carried news of Him to
the countries east of Palestine. The Wise Men from the West would carry
His message into the western world.
Jesus shares a Greek salad (What else?) and
white wine with His Greek guests at a vine covered outdoor cafe.
Jerusalem is enjoying beautiful weather. There has been speculation for
centuries that Jesus Himself spoke some Greek along with His native
Aramaic. He proves as sophisticated as the Greeks. Originally they
thought of Him as a Socrates. They found Him much more. Unlike
Socrates, He knows exactly who He is.
He blows their sharp minds with His surreal message.
Only death brings life. To illustrate His point He uses the grain
symbolism. Unless grains of wheat are buried, they will not produce
wheat fields. Our Lord was teaching the Greeks and us that only by
spending one's life do we retain it. We will exist long into the 21st
century if we take things easily, avoid strain, and protect our lives
as would a hypochondriac. We will exist longer, but unhappily we will
not live. We will prove the point made by a priest that not all the
dead are buried.
History is filled with people who have learned the
lesson Jesus was teaching the Greeks that day at brunch. GB
Shaw's Joan of Arc is one. She knew her enemies were closing in. So she
shouts to God, "I shall last only a year. Use me as you can."
Christians who lost their lives helping Holocaust
Jews are remembered today in Israel in the garden known as the Avenue
of the Just. They surrendered their own lives to save others.
Incidentally, the Teacher underlines His
teaching that from death springs life more than once. You will find Him
doing it two times in Matthew, twice in Luke, and once in Mark. He had
no intention of pigeonholing this teaching.
The Master picked up the check at the bistro.
As He was
leaving the Greeks, He threw them a fluttering knuckle ball that must
have caused indigestion. "And when I am lifted up from the earth, I
shall draw all men to myself." It was on the magnet of a wooden cross
Jesus placed His hopes. History proved Him right.
The empires founded on force have gone leaving
bad memories - Genghis Khan, Alexander, Napoleon, Hitler, and Saddam.
But, as Christ the swordless on an ass."
The Christian life, the sage says, is like
parachuting. We must do it right the first time.
|
|
http://www.st.ignatius.net/pastor.html
5 Lent
|
Fifth Lent: His Hour is Our Time
I
would like to begin today with a story about a great Indian Christian
named Sundar. Sundar had been a member of the Sikh religion, but
converted to Christianity. Sundar lived in the Northernmost section of
India in the Himalayan Mountains. The story is true. During
the cold of winter Sundar was traveling by foot with a Buddhist
monk. Their destination was a monastery high in the
mountains. Suddenly, the weather changed. The temperature
dropped. The journey became dangerous. Night was coming on, the weather
was turning even worse. There was a very good chance that Sundar
and the monk would freeze to death.
They
crossed over a narrow path above a steep cliff when they heard someone
calling out for help. Underneath them, another traveler had
fallen, and lay deep down in a ravine. He had broken his
leg. The monk warned Sundar, “Do not stop. God has brought
this man to his fate. He must work it out himself. That is the
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. He made a rudimentary sling and hauled
the man onto his back. Sundar struggled, but was able to carry
the man up to the path. He felt his body overheating, but he
continued to carry the man. They were warmed by each other’s
body. Perspiring hard, almost fainting, Sundar finally caught
sight of the monastery. Then a few hundred yards away from the
monastery, Sundar stumbled and fell. Sundar 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 the physical and the spiritual merge. When we are
united to Jesus we participate in the life of the One who is eternal.
I am
not sure that I fully appreciate what Jesus has done for me. He
has given me the ability to experience His presence in others and to
bring His Presence to others. He has made the spiritual real. I
wish I could say to you that my life is thoroughly enmeshed with His
Life, but if I did say that, I would be either lying or in
heaven. The reason why this Lent is so important for me is to
allow me to come to a deeper realization of His Presence in my life and
in my world.
I am
sure it is the same for all of you. I am sure that there are
times that you are wonderfully shocked at the presence of the Lord in
your lives. I am sure that you also are astounded when others
tell you that they have experienced the Presence of Jesus through you.
Those are the time when you and I just are delighted by His Amazing
Grace.
The
journey of our lives is a journey to make His Hour our Hour. I wrote
about the hour in today’s bulletin. When Jesus uses the phrase,
hour, He isn’t merely referring to the time of day it might be.
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 point of human history when spiritual life will be
restored. 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, 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.
Sundar said: “it is my tradition that God has brought me here to help
my brother.”
Jesus said, “Unless the grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it
remains only a single grain. But if it dies, it yields a rich
harvest.”
And
we say, “He died for us so that we may die for Him.”
His
hour is upon us.
|
|
http://www.geocities.com/seapadre_1999/
* available in Spanish - see
Spanish homilies
5 Lent
|
A
Matter of Life Or Death
(March 29, 2009)
Bottom line: Following Jesus is not about making things better. It is a
matter of life or death.
On this final Sunday before Holy Week, Jesus tells us, "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." Then he adds these
bracing words, "Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his
life in this world will preserve it for eternal life." Following Jesus
is not about making the world a better place.* Nor is it about
improving one's life. No, following Jesus is a matter of life or death.
To illustrate this I would like to tell you about a book that affected
me deeply. It might surprise you: the book is short novel by Leo
Tolstoy, called "The Death of Ivan Ilyich." Ivan Ilyich is a
45-year-old man who has achieved a good life: He has risen to a
prestigious job with sufficient income to purchase the things he wants.
His peers admire him and people in general respect him. Apart from an
unhappy marriage, he enjoys life - especially playing cards with his
friends.
But then an illness strikes. Ivan Ilyich believes he can overcome it -
as he has overcome every other obstacle. As we would say, he is a
fighter. His own carelessness, he (and others) suspect, has brought on
his adverse condition. By an act will, he can return things to normal.
Prominent doctors examine him and make various hypotheses about what is
wrong. Ilyich, however, see through their pretensions. He has done the
same sort thing in the courtroom.**
The doctors speculate about "floating kidney, chronic catarrh, or
appendicitis." Whether the condition is fatal, they do not want to say.
Likewise his family and friends avoid that unpleasant subject. At the
same time, Ilyich sense that they would be relieved if he went quickly.
He is an embarrassment and a bother to them.
Ilyich longs for someone to sympathize with what is really happening to
him, yet he himself cannot put it into words. One man - a peasant named
Gerasim - shows genuine pity. By supporting Ilyich's feet on his
shoulders, Gerasim brings some relief to the suffering. More important,
Gerasim evidences concern for a fellow human facing what all must face.
Through him Ilyich moves from seeing his condition as a struggle
between sickness and health to what it really is: a matter of life or
death.***
Gerasim's concern enables him to ask a question: "What if my whole life
has been wrong?" But Ilyich dismisses the question. He has, after all,
acted by the conventions of his society - and done things quite
properly. But the question won't go away. Eventually it enables him to
see his coming death in a different way.****
The novel concludes with paradox that the life Ilyich clung to was in
fact deadly, while the death he dreaded held out something beyond his
imagining.
One can read Tolstoy's short novel in a couple of hours (it is only
about a hundred pages long) - and it is readily available at libraries,
bookstores and even on-line. Tolstoy's insights (and satire) is as well
aimed today as it was a century and a half ago.***** I recommend it as
a helpful preparation for Palm Sunday and Holy Week. It illustrates
what Jesus tells us today. "Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground
and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat...whoever hates his life in
this world will preserve it for eternal life." Following Jesus is not
about making things better. It is a matter of life or death.
**********
*Although that can happen - and we should desire it.
**"To Ivan Ilych only one question was important: was his case serious
or not? But the doctor ignored that inappropriate question. From his
point of view it was not the one under consideration, the real question
was to decide between a floating kidney, chronic catarrh, or
appendicitis. It was not a question the doctor solved brilliantly, as
it seemed to Ivan Ilych, in favour of the appendix, with the
reservation that should an examination of the urine give fresh
indications the matter would be reconsidered. All this was just what
Ivan Ilyich had himself brilliantly accomplished a thousand times in
dealing with men on trial."
***"'Maybe I did not live as I ought to have done,' it suddenly
occurred to him. 'But how could that be, when I did everything
properly?' he replied, and immediately dismissed from his mind this,
the sole solution of all the riddles of life and death, as something
quite impossible."
At a later point, he begins to see himself differently:
"He lay on his back and began to pass his life in review in quite a new
way. In the morning when he saw first his footman, then his wife, then
his daughter, and then the doctor, their every word and movement
confirmed to him the awful truth that had been revealed to him during
the night. In them he saw himself—all that for which he had lived—and
saw clearly that it was not real at all, but a terrible and huge
deception which had hidden both life and death."
****Jeremiah tells us today that the recognition of sin is the
essential step to a relationship to Lord: "All, from the least to the
greatest, shall know me, says the LORD, for I will forgive their
evil-doing and remember their sin no more."
*****Of course, one needs to read Tolstoy with a critical mind. Like
most of nineteenth century intelligentsia, he had a less than robust
view of Jesus. In 1901 (fifteen years after writing The Death of Ivan
Ilyich) the Russian Orthodox Church excommunicated him. I am hardly
qualified to judge Tolstoy's faith, but his penetrating analysis of
human society has certainly stood the test of time.
Intercessions for Fifth Sunday of Lent (from Priests for Life)
Spanish Version
|
|
http://www.agreeley.com/homilies.html
5 Lent
|
|
|
http://www.saintvincentarchabbey.org/homilies/index.lasso
5 Lent
|
Mar, 29, 2009
John 12: 20-33
Campion P. Gavaler, O.S.B.
Fifth Sunday of Lent
Gospel Summary
Some Greeks who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover feast say to
Philip, "Sir, we would like to see Jesus." Jesus responds, "The hour
has come for the Son of Man to be glorified." He then says that in
order to produce much fruit, a grain of wheat must fall to the ground
and die; and only the person who "hates his life in this world will
preserve it for eternal life." Those who follow him, Jesus promises,
will be where he is, and the Father will honor them.
Jesus, realizing that his "hour" will involve suffering and death, is
troubled; yet, he entrusts his life to the Father. Through giving
himself to his Father's will, the world will be judged, and the ruler
of this world will be driven out. Jesus then reveals the purpose of the
"hour" he is about to enter: "And when I am lifted up from the earth, I
will draw everyone to myself."
Life Implications
The incident of the Greeks asking to see Jesus marks a turning point in
the fourth gospel. Before, as at the wedding feast at Cana, Jesus had
always said that his "hour" had not yet come. Now through the symbolic
presence of the Greeks, Jesus will be able to draw everyone to himself
-- Gentiles as well as Jews, people today as well as people of the
first century. We, too, would like to see Jesus.
One of the most elusive concepts in the entire bible is "glory." John
uses the term to refer to the divine presence manifesting itself in the
world, and also to the recognition of that supreme presence by a
faithful person. In the hour that has come upon him, how will the
Father's presence manifest itself to Jesus, and how will he honor that
divine presence?
It is clear from many incidents in the fourth gospel that Jesus loved
and enjoyed his human life. He took part in a wedding feast at Cana. At
the death of his friend Lazarus, Jesus was moved with the deepest
emotions ( anger or indignation as well as sorrow). He wept, so much
did he love his friend. Now that his "hour" has come, Jesus is troubled
at the prospect of losing his life. The Letter to the Hebrews states:
"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..." (5:7).
Because human life is so precious, perhaps the deepest human instinct
is for its survival. We 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. In prayer, however, he recognized the
presence of the Father's eternal life dwelling in him, and he committed
himself to his Father's will even if it meant he would die. In this the
Father glorifies his name by showing us in Jesus that divine life and
love overcome death, not only in his beloved Son but in every human
being who follows Jesus.
When Jesus dies on the cross, it appears to be the "hour" when the
"ruler of this world" has triumphed once and for all. However, the
reality is that Jesus is lifted up not to end his life on the cross,
but is lifted up to eternal life in the Father. The good news that
John's gospel proclaims is that now Jesus draws everyone to himself.
The Greeks and all who now "see" Jesus and follow him in faith will be
where he is, with God.
The crucial "hour" when one must chooses either to love one's life in
this world above everything else, or to love one's life in God, of
course, will come in the particular circumstances of one's own world.
There are immediate implications of that decision. To define one's
ultimate meaning in relation to any reality but God is to live in a
state of anxiety because that finite reality, however precious, may
pass away at any moment. On the other hand, to define one's meaning in
relation to life in God brings peace beyond understanding. Even though,
like Christ, we may experience the deepest emotions at the death of a
loved one, or be troubled at the prospect of our own death, the final
word is peace. "I have told you this so that you might have peace in
me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have
overcome the world" (Jn 16:33). I think most of us in reflecting on the
life implications of this Sunday's gospel can identify with the
sentiment of a Van Morrison song, "When will I ever learn to live in
God."
Campion P. Gavaler, OSB
|
|
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html Meeting Christ in the Liturgy
5 Lent
|
Fifth
Sunday
Jeremiah 31: 31-34; Psalm 51; Hebrews 5:7-9; John 12:20-33
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Jesus Christ gives greatest glory to the Father precisely in the
shattering degradation and utmost ignominy of the Cross. "The hour has
come for the Son of Man to be glorified." (Jn 12,23) Dying Jesus
destroys our death and rising he restores our life, but the work must
now be completed for each of us daily.
You and I share in Christ's glorious completion of the Father's will
when we too accept the Cross and the Passion heroically and generously
in our lives: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat
falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it
bears much fruit." (Jn 12, 24) It appears at first as though Christ
merely reminds us that we too must die as he will, and prepares us to
accept it. But listen to what he says next: "He who loves his life
loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for
eternal life." This dying, then, is one which bears fruit by detachment
from this world for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. A daily dying to
the self by overcoming a million petty urges and desires. A generous
acceptance of the duties of marriage and family life with cheerfulness.
A configuring to the truth by rejection of sin and regular Confession.
A husband meets his greatest challenge to die to self and live for
Christ as he devotedly cares for his terminally ill wife unto the end,
never counting the cost in dollars or days. He has chosen Christ and
"hated" his own life in this world so that he can live forever. A wife
attends to her paraplegic husband in a heroic living of her marriage
vows, choosing Christ and his life, and "hating" her life in this world
because she looks forward with anticipation to the day when both she
and her husband will know no more pain, suffering, labor or temptation.
A parent unconditionally loves his mongoloid child, open to the Godly
beauty and goodness that child has brought into the world. He "hates"
his life in this world and sees a foretaste of heaven in the innocence
of his child. He desires to share forever in the glory of God's love
and understands that he must reject the very easy path of selfishness.
The infertile couple reject the temptation to manipulate the process of
life-giving through unnatural methods of conception and open themselves
to the joys of adoption. They truly "hate" their lives in this world in
reverence for God and the desire to do his will, choosing salvation as
their greatest hope over the other good things this life offers.
We are not alone in our temptation to reject the crosses by which we
are born into life if we will only bear them with patience and courage.
Our sharing in baptism is the gift of grace so that we can desire a
share in Christ's redemptive passion as the focus and purpose of our
lives.
"The desire to embrace his Father's plan of redeeming love inspired
Jesus' whole life, (Cf. Lk 12:50; 22:15; Mt 16:21-23) for his
redemptive passion was the very reason for his Incarnation. And so he
asked, 'And what shall I say? "Father, save me from this hour"? No, for
this purpose I have come to this hour.' (Jn 12:27) And again, 'Shall I
not drink the cup which the Father has given me?' (Jn 18:11) From the
cross, just before 'It is finished,' he said, 'I thirst.' (Jn 19:30;
19:28) " (CCC 607)
In our prayer let us truly thirst for the Father's will in and with
Jesus our Lord as we utter the words "Thy will be done."
I look forward to meeting you here again next week as, together, we
"meet Christ in the liturgy", Father Cusick
(Publish with permission.) www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/
|
|
http://www.ctk-thornbury.org.uk/
5 Lent
|
Sermon
by Father Alex McAllister SDS Index
Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year B
In listening to the words of today’s Gospel we see that Jesus realises
he is very close to the cataclysmic events that were to become the
hinge points of the whole of human history: his own death and
resurrection.
I think that we can never overstate the impact of his death and
resurrection—everything that existed before, everything that exists now
and everything that will exist in the future depends upon and takes its
meaning from these events.
Many people live their lives quite oblivious to this fact and I suppose
many more in the future will do the same. But if we are to make sense
of the world and all that is in it then we must come to the realisation
that what occurred on those three days two-thousand years ago is of
absolutely crucial importance.
Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified, says Jesus
and he gives us that beautiful proverb about the grain of wheat. Unless
a grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single
grain; but if it dies it yields a rich harvest.
As we know, these words were uttered just a few days before Jesus
himself was do die and rise again in order to bear the greatest harvest
of all. He dies so that many might live—indeed so that all might live,
all who chose his way of self-sacrifice.
This is a harvest far greater than any mere sheaf of wheat. This is a
harvest of souls—a bounteous harvest of souls won for eternal life.
So we can see why Jesus calls his death a glorification. That darkest
moment of all, especially considering the circumstances, is turned into
a victory not only for Christ but also for all of us.
We spend these next two last weeks of Lent in what we can only call
“The Shadow of the Cross.” As we approach Good Friday, each day we
spend a little more time in meditation on the terrible events that
unfolded all those years ago.
As Christians our natural instinct is to accompany Jesus on that last
journey and feel deeply for him as we witness from a distance the
brutalities and indignities he experienced for our sake.
The Cross does cast a shadow across the life of every Christian—we all
experience loss, sorrow and suffering at one time or another. But
knowing that our Divine Saviour walked that way before us gives us the
strength to carry on. And we carry on full of hope precisely because of
the victory he won for us on the Cross of Calvary.
In the words of today’s Gospel and in their echo in the Letter to the
Hebrews we get some idea of the anguish Jesus went through.
Unlike the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke there is no Agony in the
Garden of Gethsemane in the Fourth Gospel. For John the garden is
merely the place where Jesus is arrested.
The suffering of the Agony in the Garden is transferred to this scene
before the Passover. John records the words: Now my soul is troubled.
Jesus knows that his hour is at hand; that the time has come for all
that was foretold to take place.
The other Gospels, with almost the same words in each of them, record
Jesus praying: Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me.
Nevertheless, let your will be done.
Here in John the incident is formulated differently. There is no vigil
of prayer and the words are posed as a rhetorical question to the
disciples: What shall I say: Father save me from this hour? It’s a
rhetorical question because Jesus answers it himself by saying: But it
was for this very reason that I came.
This is quite a different approach, there seems to be almost no doubt
at all. Jesus approaches his passion as if it were something for which
he had long prepared.
He then goes on to say: Father glorify your name. It is as if by asking
the Father to glorify his name that Jesus wishes the whole thing to be
brought speedily to a conclusion.
This is no Agony in the Garden, this is almost exhilaration or an
excited anticipation which is intensified by the extraordinary reply
from heaven: I have glorified my name and I will glorify it again.
As an aside, we should note that this is the first time in the Gospel
of John that the voice of God is heard—because there is no voice at the
Baptism and no account of the Transfiguration.
With this announcement from heaven at such a crucial moment we see the
extraordinary closeness between Jesus and the Father, their wills are
absolutely united. The self-doubt that is expressed in the Synoptic
Gospels is completely and totally absent.
But John lets us know that facing his passion and death will still cost
Jesus something, as he says: Now my soul is troubled.
As a priest you see many people face their own death. It is one of the
many privileges of this wonderful vocation. These days, however, many
people are deprived of the opportunity of experiencing this sacred
moment through coma or heavy medication.
Some people are quite naturally very afraid and need reassurance, but
you would be surprised at how many do face the prospect of immanent
death with great equanimity and faith. They take comfort in the
knowledge of the victory Jesus has won for them and in the promises of
God.
Jesus faced his death and because of this we can face ours.
Many years ago it was a common Catholic practice to prepare one’s self
for sleep by preparing one’s self for death. You made a careful
examination of conscience and said an act of contrition for all the
sins you had committed during that day and in this way you could sleep
safe in the knowledge that if you died in the night you were as well
prepared as you could be.
Although it could be regarded as out of fashion, this is not a practice
to be sneered at; indeed it is something we could all do well to
imitate. It is true piety.
But perhaps to conclude we ought to look at the words from the Letter
to the Hebrews: During his life on earth Christ offered up prayer and
entreaty, aloud and in silent tears, to the one who had the power to
save him out of death, and he submitted so humbly that his prayer was
heard.
If the same could be said for us we certainly would have no fear when
it comes to facing our own death. |
|
Father Bonar will not be posting homilies for Cycle B to allow himself
time for other projects. His collection of homilies (including homilies
for Cycle B) is available at www.clydebonar.com.
5 Lent |
|
|
These
homilies may be copied and adapted for your own use;
however, they may not be commercially published without permission of
the author. |
|
|
 |
|
|
| |
|
