Reflection: Fifth Sunday of Lent: Jer31: 31-34; Heb 5:7-9 and John 12:20-33

Bangalore (India), 21/03/2021, Sr. Anula Irvin Suguna.- The tone of Lent is gradually altering, becoming more intense as we move towards its supreme hour culminating in the passion and death of Jesus.

In this journey of lent, we encounter Jesus victorious in his temptation, glorious in his transfiguration, revolutionary in the temple and a radical teacher in his discourse with Nicodemus. Today, through the image of a grain of wheat, Jesus teaches us a great lesson that the grain must die to give new life.

In the first reading, Jeremiah foretells the setting up of a New Covenant, replacing the Old one from Mount Sinai. This covenant will not be written on tablets of stone as “I will write it upon their hearts” (Jer 31:33), it is a covenant of love not a duty or obligation to fulfill, not through any human mediation, but by the Son of God Himself and ratified not with the blood of sheep or oxen, but by the precious blood of Christ. This is a universal covenant, not binding one race or people, but including all people, “everyone, from least to greatest, shall know me” (Jer 31: 34).

With an example from nature, “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), Jesus explains the meaning of the redeeming love through His Cross, death and Resurrection.  As a grain that goes through decomposing in the earth to bring forth new life and become fruitful, He, by his wounds and death have healed us (1 Pt 2:24) and has brought new life for all. This is the price he paid to bring freedom and reconciliation for all sinners in obedience to the plan of God by emptying himself to death on the Cross (Phil 2:7).

In nature, there are some grains or seeds that are lost, seeds that will never come to life. There are seeds that do not break open because they do not want to go through this uncomfortable death experience. We can be like one of those seeds, letting all our life to be rotten, never bearing fruit. But we can make a choice to be seeds that are willing to die, to be fruitful, life giving and be transformed by life. 

What does it mean to be a good grain of wheat today in our world? It is to have the law of love written in our hearts and radiate it to others, to think less about oneself, more of others, come out of our shell of selfishness and be concerned about others.  We create a passage from death to life when we love our brothers and sisters. “Whoever does not love abides in death” (1 Jn 3:14).  For “love shatters the chains that keep us isolated and separate; in their place, it builds bridges…Love exudes compassion and dignity” (Fratelli Tutti, 62), calling us to engage giving our time, energy, set aside our desires, plans and pay attention to someone in real need as did the Good Samaritan (Lk 10: 25-37). Love has the capacity to let itself go, lose itself, let itself be transformed. It knows that to give life, it must become unrecognizable, unnoticed but life giving. “God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ” (Eph 2:4). This intense time invites us to contemplate our Lord who suffers in love for you and me, wounded, scourged, mocked, humiliated with his heart burning with love for the humanity. 

Christ suffers today in our brothers and sisters and we are confronted constantly with a wounded world around us where pain and suffering have become part of many people. Indifference to suffering, ignoring others and closing our eyes may be an easy way out to play a safe card.

The seed that has allowed itself to be transformed can no longer turn its back to any suffering. The love of the seed is either forever giving new life or it is not. The seed gives life and can never take it back, its nature is to give and to love in abundance without reserve.

Let us ask:

- How can I be transformed through a process of dying in order to be life giving?

- As I respond to God’s invitation to transformation, what are the safe and easy ways that I need to discard to respond to my brothers and sisters who suffer?