This is the last Sunday before Palm Sunday (Passion Sunday). Therefore, today’s scripture readings draw our attention to the looming death of Jesus and its meaning.
Today’s First Reading (Jeremiah 31:31-34) is
considered as a high point of Jeremiah’s prophecy. As a persecuted prophet, all the suffering
that Jeremiah had endured was worth for this post-exilic prophecy of new hope.
This is a beautiful and beatific reflection of God’s new covenant upon the
return from the Babylonian exile. And to be worthy to receive this blessing, we
must make our hearts clean by God grace, as reflected in the Responsorial Psalm
(51:3-4, 12-13, 14-15). Historically, what the Israelites during the
post-exilic period failed, again, to truly honor and appreciate God’s loving
kindness (chesed) and mercy (rachamim) addressed reflected in
Jeremiah 31-34, as they put God in oblivion and sinned again. For generations,
they had been in darkness of sin. And after Malachi, they had been even in
darker time, as there had been no prophet for more than 400 years, until John
the Baptist appeared to prepare for the coming of Christ, by emphasizing
penance for their sins (Matthew 3:1-12//Mark 1:3-8//Luke 3:2-17).
Since He so loved the world (John 3:16), God sent
His only begotten Son in incarnating Theos-Logos
(John 1, 14), impregnating Mary the Immaculate Conception by the power of the
Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20; Luke 1:35).
God neither forsake nor condemned the Israelites
although they trashed His new post-exilic hope on them as they returned to a
life of sin. Rather, He showed His love by sending the Son, incarnated in the
human flesh of Jesus. It was to save not only the Israelites but also anyone who
believe in God through the Son, Jesus, Jews and Gentiles. For him to consummate
the salvific mission, the Son needed the human flesh to die as human at once.
And, his salvific death is reflected in Jesus’ parable of the fallen grain of
wheat (John 12:23-26), in today’s Gospel Reading (John 12:20-33).
The Second Reading (Hebrews 5:7-9) explains that God
sent His Son, the Christ, incarnated in human flesh so that he learn and show
what it means to be obedient to God through his suffering, to its perfection.
And by perfecting obedience to the will of the Father, through his death,
Christ has become the source of eternal salvation to all who to obey him. And,
this perfection with the source of eternal salvation is what grows out of the
grain of wheat fallen to the ground and died once (John 12:24).
Jesus invites us to follow his way to become the
grain of wheat to fall and die to bring abundant harvest – not cling to our
tendency to preserve our own life for the sake of the salvific obedience to him
(John 12:25-26), as he is obedient to the Father (Hebrews 5:8-9).
Jesus, becoming like the fallen grain of wheat to die, namely, his death on the Cross and burial of his corpse in the tomb, means the glorification of God’s name (John 12:28), and the Father affirms from heaven saying:
I have glorified it and will glorify it
again (John 12:28b).
This is to say that the Father has glorified the Son
through the miraculous signs which he performed five times up to that point
(John 2:1-11; 4:46-54; 5:1-15; 6:5-14; 6:16-24)
and will continue to do so as he will perform more signs (John 9:1-7; 11:1-45).
In reference to John 17:5, the Father is indicating glorifying the Son in his
death, resurrection, and ascension, beyond his miraculous signs.
And, Jesus explained what the voice of the Father on
the glorification of Jesus meant:
This voice did not come for my sake but
for yours. Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this
world will be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw
everyone to myself (John 12:30-32).
This means that repeated glorifications of Jesus by
the heavenly Father are not for him but for us – for our salvation. This is why
all the seven signs that Jesus performed, as described in John’s Gospel, point
to Jesus being lifted up on the Cross, though he is to fall and die like the
grain of wheat, and lifted up again as he is raised from the dead, and lifted
in ascension to heaven, so that more and more people will believe and come to
him – even after his ascension, because Jesus has promised his perpetual
presence to us whether he is physically present on earth or ascended from the
earth (John 14:18; Matthew 28:20).
And Jesus said that this, his statement in John
12:30-32, indicates what his looming death is about (John 12:33). In other
words, Jesus is to die like a fallen grain of wheat to bring abundant fruit for
a great harvest (John 12:24) – to draw and gather everyone who believes to him
(John 12:32), upon being lifted up from the earth (John 12:32), referring to
his resurrection and ascension, being glorified (John 12:28).
Gathering of believers is the new order that comes
out of Jesus’ death and resurrection and ascension in connection to the
judgement – the day of the Lord. And, this new order is reflected in an image
drawn from Jeremiah 31:31-34, based on a new covenant. In fact this gathering
around Jesus upon his glorification is the Church, made alive and empowered by
the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
So, now you see how our Lenten journey will lead us
beyond the Cross and the empty tomb – all the way to Pentecost for us to
experience a new covenant reflected in Jeremiah 31:31-34. In addition, we are
also called to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1), being able
to die like a grain of wheat fallen to the ground, not clinging to our life in
order to follow and to be drawn to Jesus, to be honored by the Father (John
12:24-26). This is our service to Jesus and how we stay where he is (John 12:26).
Let us continue to remain with Jesus as our Lenten
journey is coming nearer to the Holy Week.
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