March 18 -- Fifth Sunday of Lent

Fifth Sunday of Lent

Reading 1: Jerimiah 31:31-34
Psalms 51:3-4, 12-13, 14-15
Gospel: John 12:20-33
Reading 2: Hebrews 5:7-9

The setting of our gospel reading for the Fifth Sunday of Lent is Jerusalem, shortly before Passover. Pilgrims were arriving in the city for this great festival, including many from Greek speaking areas of the empire. This was the occasion for Jesus to speak of his coming death as being glorified by God.

Was God being sadistic? No. Jesus was saying that the way he would be executed would point to something much greater. Those being crucified were lying down when they were nailed to a cross. Then the cross was lifted up, so that the one being executed would die horribly, because he would eventually be unable to breathe.

But this lifting up was pointing to another, greater lifting up. Jesus would be resurrected from the dead and return to God the Father. And anyone who followed him would be in eternal union with God and share in the divine glory.

Given the state of the world, in Jesus’ time and in ours, those of us who want to be his disciples will have to die to our self-centeredness and truly live for one another. Jesus’ brief and very down-to-earth parable about the grain of wheat which must die in order to produce more wheat is perfect.

The deaths of 17 students and staff at the high school in Parkland, FL last month were not God’s will. Yet this time people have not felt sad for a few days and then gone on with “normal” life. Thousands of people across the country, especially high school students, are demanding changes that will make such killings far less likely. They are living out the lesson of today’s gospel.