Homily for the
5th Sunday of
Lent
Mar. 17, 2024
John 12: 20-33
Jer 31: 31-34
Heb 5: 7-9
Collect
The Fountains,
Tuckahoe
Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis
Xavier, Bronx
“Sir, we would like to see Jesus” (John 12:
21).
(by Henrik Olrik)
The people identified as Greeks in this
gospel passage are Gentiles from either Galilee or the surrounding non-Jewish
territory, from Lebanon, Syria, or the Decapolis. Jesus’ preaching and miracles have won him
notice beyond Israel.
What is it that Jesus allows them to
see? His answer is that he’s a grain of
wheat that must fall to the earth and die in order to produce fruit
(12:24). He must be lifted up from the
earth—he means both lifted on the cross and raised up to heaven—so as to draw
everyone to himself (12:32); everyone—both Greeks and Jews, all of humanity.
The collect—that’s the technical name for
the opening prayer—noted that God’s Son “handed himself over to death out of
love for the world.” The Letter to the
Hebrews says something similar: by his
suffering, Jesus “became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him”
(5:9).
Those who obey Jesus, who see him as the
Christ, who follow him, become the fruit he produces for the glory of God. “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where
I am, there also will my servant be. The
Father will honor whoever serves me” (John 12:26).
On the hearts of those who follow Jesus and
serve him, God the Father writes a new law, as Jeremiah prophesied
(31:33). That new law, the law of the
new covenant or new testament, is the law of love. When that law is written on our hearts, we imitate
Jesus by practicing self-sacrificing love,[1] dying to
ourselves like the grain that falls to the earth. “Whoever hates his life in this world will
preserve it for eternal life” (John 12:25).
Around 200 A.D., during a period of
persecution, a Christian writer named Tertullian in Carthage, North Africa, stated
that “the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.” The Church is the fruit, 1st of Christ’s
blood, then of the blood of his witnesses, his martyrs. On Friday blood shed for Christ was
celebrated in a ceremony in the cathedral of Lahore, Pakistan. The diocese was concluding its investigation
into the life, virtues, and reputation for holiness of Akash Bashir, a
20-year-old youth who was a past pupil of the Salesian school in Lahore. Akash was serving as a security guard at a
nearby parish church when, on March 15, 2015, a suicide bomber tried to enter
during Mass. Akash confronted him,
grappled with him, and was killed when the bomb detonated. Thus he saved many lives inside the
church. The diocese is proposing that he
be canonized as a martyr who shed his blood for Christ and is sending the case
to Rome.
Akash Bashir
We prayed in the collect that we might
“walk eagerly in that same charity with which [Jesus] handed himself over to
death” because he loves the world and wishes the world to be saved from the
ruin of sin. Martyrs aren’t the only
ones who follow in Jesus’s steps, showing his love for the world and their love
for their neighbors.
When spouses sacrifice themselves for their
partners and their children, they bear the fruit of raising new disciples for
Jesus—their children and grandchildren.
When we sacrifice ourselves for our parish, we bear fruit by
strengthening the faith of other believers.
When we sacrifice for our neighbors and others, we plant a seed in their
minds that Christ lives in us and acts thru us for their sake; and that seed
may germinate and produce the fruit of goodness and virtue in them, perhaps
even the fruit of Christian faith.
We die to ourselves when we reject the lure
of sin—the lure of avarice, lust, jealousy, pride, anger, gluttony, and sloth
(the 7 deadly sins)—and instead practice humility, chastity, patience,
self-restraint, diligence, and gentleness.
What wonderful seeds those are to plant in the hearts of our children,
families, friends, and neighbors! What
wonderful ways to help them see Jesus, the same Jesus to whom Philip and Andrew
long ago led Gentile seekers.
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