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.

Transcription

1 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. (Gospel) Vincent van Gogh ( ), Sunset- Wheat Fields Near Arles. 5 th Sunday in Lent, Cycle B March 25 th, 2012

2 First Reading: Jeremiah 31: The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. Responsorial Psalm 51:3-4, Lector: 3 I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. All: 4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. Lector: 6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. All: 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Lector: 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. All: 9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Lector: 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. All: 11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Lector: 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. All: 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Lector: 14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.

3 All: 15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. Second Reading: Hebrews 5:7-9 7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; 9 and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, Gospel Reading: John 12: Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. 22 Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 Jesus answered them, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. 27 Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say Father, save me from this hour? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven, I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again. 29 The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, An angel has spoken to him. 30 Jesus answered, This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. 33 He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

4 Homily It is not widely understood that in the Hebrew scriptures, the prophet Jeremiah prophesied that there would be a new covenant. 1 In the Torah, God or some chosen agent of God would instruct and teach, and the new covenant would draw upon the existing Torah but the difference would be that people will come to know the Lord for themselves, by direct experience (v. 34). What is incredible in the prophet s words is that the covenant would not be simply passed down from their fathers by tradition nor inscribed on stone: the law of God would be placed in and written upon their hearts, e.g. what we in our current day language would describe as internalized, becoming a part of who we are. Jeremiah and the writer of Deuteronomy both insisted there would be necessity for a circumcision of the heart, e.g. an inward obedience rather than reliance on mere words written on a stone tablet (Jeremiah 4:4; Deuteronomy 10:16, 30:6). Knowing God will be understood from within. Our responsorial Psalm teaches us something of this process, where we ask God to create a clean heart and to renew his spirit within us, asking the Holy Spirit to sustain and dwell with us. In other Psalms we also see that the idea of Jeremiah for an internalized experience of God: The Law of God is in his heart his steps do not falter (Psalm 37:31). To do your will, O my God, your law is within my heart (Psalm 40:8). It is likely that the Psalmist was influenced by Jeremiah. Some Christians have mistakenly assumed that the Hebrew scriptures or the Torah would be superceded by the NT, but there is no ground at all for such a conclusion. It is to our spiritual detriment if we do not understand the relationship between the Hebrew Testament and the NT. Ezekiel (36:26) too says that a new heart and a new spirit will be given to us, replacing our hearts of stone and leading us to live by God s statutes. In the second reading, we hear the story of how Jesus faced his own death in what he experienced as obedience to God, not to run from the end, reverencing God in his suffering, and thereby showing us the path to living our own lives, of finding our own salvation in this life and in the life to come. In Hebrews, the author does not address the passion but speaks of Jesus reverent submission (eulabeias) throughout his life but this did not save him from his final fate. Jesus unique sonship (remember, from last week, not only son but unique son ) gives him no immunity from suffering on this earth but it does equip him to go through the suffering as a part of his ultimate calling. Suffering is followed by glory, which we may struggle to understand this relationship. 1 Gerard S. Sloyan (2004). Preaching from the Lectionary: An Exegetical Commentary. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. Material summarized above for both the 1 st and 2 nd readings come from this source except where otherwise noted.

5 The Gospel also tells the same story, and Jesus teaches Andrew and Philip with the story of the grain of wheat that must die before it can reproduce. We too must die to ourselves and it is in our mutual submission to God s plan that the harvest of wheat in people s lives will be gained by setting ourselves aside just as Jesus did. We may not be called to die, but we will at least be called to die to our own egos, to put the Body of Christ his people first in our thinking. We are called to sacrifice for one another. Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444) 2 has beautifully described the process: Now Christ became like one of us; he sprang from the holy Virgin like a spike of wheat from the ground a single grain, but if it dies its yield is very great. For we do not think of a spike of wheat, any more than we do of ourselves, in isolation. We think of it rather as part of a sheaf, which is a single bundle mde up of many spikes. The spikes have to be gathered into a bundle before they can be used, and this is the key to the mystery they represent, the mystery of Christ who, though one, appears in the image of a sheaf to be made up of many, as in fact he is. Spiritually, he contains in himself all believers He is a human being like ourselves and this has made us one body with him, the body being the bond that unites us We can say, therefore, that in him we are all one, and indeed he himself says to God, his heavenly Father: It is my desire that as I and you are one, so they also may be one in us. We see that Jesus is troubled by the prospect of his imminent suffering (v. 27), and he prays to submit to it rather than to escape. We see that he does not ask his disciples to do anything but pray with him. The Father speaks to them, a sign of a voice like thunder, leaving them wondering if an angel has spoken. This passage reminds us of the Sinai narrative, and the writer of this Gospel depicts Jesus as the Messiah who delivers and teaches Torah in new circumstances. The parable of the seed (v. 24) that dies indicates the link to Jesus coming glory. Those following Jesus must know that if we re too attached to our lives we follow our own inclinations and not those that God gives us to do. The voice from the sky is the same as in Hebrew scripture, the bat qol or daughter of the voice in which God addressed the prophets and was the same word used at Sinai (Exodus 19:19). Some thought the thunder was the voice of God, or of an angel. It seems that no one was disturbed at this event but they did not seem to be participating in Jesus experience. A voice from heaven is a specific element of an alternate state of awareness or 2 Commentary on Numbers 2: PG 69, Commentary: Cyril of Alexandria. Op cit. Edith Barnecut. (St. Louis University liturgy site). Cyril succeeded his uncle Theophilus as patriarch in 412, and until 428, this brilliant theologian was employed in exegesis and apologetics against the Arians, and subsequently in refuting the Nestorian Heresy, which was condemned by the Council of Ephesus in 431, at which Cyril presided. The Incarnation is central to his theology.

6 consciousness from the ancient Mediterranean culture, 3 and these alternate states are interpreted in light of their traditional beliefs. The Greeks asked to see Jesus and his response is a lesson in who he is not one claiming earthly power one who allows God s voice to finish the lesson: 4 God honors those who seek him, and being willing to fall and die like a grain of wheat. This is the meaning of the cross for us. The Greeks as well as we can now see the true Lord, the pattern for honor and glory in our own lives as well! Let us see who he was, what he did, and follow him! No stone tablets. God wrote on our fleshy hearts. The God of Love asks our love, asks to cherish us and forgive us, to forget our sins. O God, Teach us receive, and please drive our sins away. Jesus knows the shaky feeling of fear. He knows tears. He called for help with loud cries. 3 John Pilch (1996). The Cultural World of Jesus: Sunday by Sunday, Year B. Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, pages Eleonore Stump. Glancing Thoughts. (5 th Lent B, St. Louis University liturgy site)

7 His pain knows our worst pain. Jesus, you pick us up, hold us and weep with us. *** Jesus, don t let us remain just a single grain. We want to grow into you, to serve only you, to go where you go, and always to do what you do. Allow us to produce fruit by the bushel-full. Amen. Prayers only. Copyright 2012, Anne M. Osdieck. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to reproduce for personal or parish use. Study Notes: Gospel Reading: Fr. Reginald Fuller comments that the connection between the contacts with Greek gentiles in this passage and the parable of the grain of wheat is that the fruit of Gentile converts could not begin until the barriers between Jews and Gentiles began to be brought down. The Jewish law posed some barriers for those who would come to Jesus, and the writer of John sees the barrier was overcome after the crucifixion. The contacts of Jesus were almost entirely within the Jewish people, although we have some stories of contacts with outsiders, including the Gospel reading today, the Samaritan woman at the well, the Syro-Phoenician woman in Mark, and the Centurion who came and asked for his servant most likely his male lover according to some exegetes to be healed. We see in the Book of Acts, after the crucifixion and resurrection, that Hellenistic Christians began preaching to Gentiles (Acts 11).