Lent Week 5 Year B
5th Sunday in Lent B – A Grain of Wheat
“Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die, it remains but a single grain, with no life.” So runs the great hymn from Bernadette Farrell, the hymn that ordinarily we would sing at this weekend’s masses to reflect the message of our gospel.
The message that Jesus was trying to teach to his disciples: that he had to die; to suffer and die in a particular way in order that His message should grow and spread across the world. In order that people would remember his message and learn from it. His message of love: love of God; love of His Spirit, love of the Son, Him and love for each other.
That this message of love would envelop their lives so that everything that they did, everything that they said and everything that they ever thought about would be a reflection and an echo of this love.
And he didn’t paint this picture of love with bouquets of flowers or pink candyfloss, with gentle lullabies in the background. No! He made it clear that it would not be a comfortable ride. It would not be an easy thing to pick up and run with. No! It will be hard. It will be challenging. It will be demanding of us of our time, our energies and our commitments. It will require that we make sacrifices along the way.
To be a follower of His will mean losing your life to the world. It will be hard and it will be demanding, but it will have rewards. Like Jesus, we may be required to suffer and to die for God but then to grow an abundant harvest, “…a rich harvest” of followers, of other seeds, of potential for God.
So, for this weekend, do we concentrate on the dying seed or on the rich harvest? Do we see only the upcoming suffering and death of Jesus or, or, do we see the end-result: the resurrection and the saving of the world? That is for us to consider and then decide on.
I don’t suppose we can do one without doing the other. Jesus had to suffer and then to die for us, in order that he could be reborn, resurrected, to take on our sins and to give us everlasting life. But what is our role and purpose in this fifth week of Lent? As we continue with our preparation for Easter, what is the message that we take from this weekend’s scriptures?
It is of a new covenant between God and His people: that any older covenant will be forgotten and will be replaced by His Son. It will be replaced with a covenant of love where people will know God through His Son. It will be a covenant of eternal love between God and His people, exercised through the love of His Son and demonstrated through the love and care for each other.
Our onward preparation within this season of Lent is a reminder to focus on the goal, the purpose of Lent and that is to make ourselves ready for Easter Sunday. But that preparation is not simply a case of giving up the odd packet of crisps or glass of wine. Not even the attendance at, or the exceptional visit to, confession or Stations of the Cross. It is these but it has to be so much more! What is Easter about for us as Christians? Why is it the most important feast within our calendar.
Because this is what Jesus came to do. He came to suffer and to die for us and then to be reborn for us, that he might take on our sins for us. Yes! Every single sin for every single one of us. To give us the chance of eternal life with His Father in heaven. Eternal life!
So, what is it that I have to do to play my part in this? I have to know what it is that I am signing up to. I have had long discussions with my son Shaun this past week about a contract that he had been told to sign. I have tried to advise him on making sure he has read it fully and understood every part of it so that he knows what he is committing to; what is required of him and what he will have to deliver and by when and that if there are any parts about which he is unsure then to ask someone who may know more, for advice.
Jeremiah speaks about a new covenant in our first reading. A new agreement, a new contract, between God and His people, us. Jesus speaks about some of the terms of this contract, this agreement, this covenant; about what will be required of us, the parties of the second part, if you like, to fulfil our part of this covenant. And it is this, that we will serve him with our whole lives; we will offer up everything that we do, that we say or that we think, as an offering to our Father in heaven. No matter the cost. No matter the pain. No matter the judgements.
Our part of this covenant is to understand what Jesus is asking of us as we prepare ourselves this Lent. We are preparing for His resurrection at Easter but we are also preparing for our renewal as signatories to this covenant which we made at our baptism. That we will honour his commitment to us by demonstrating our commitment to Him and to His Father. By looking to prepare fully and completely a fertile ground for His seed. A ground that will enable and encourage that seed to grow and to flourish and to show its harvest in and through our lives as active, demonstrative and celebratory Christians.
“Those who love me, are loved by my Father; we shall be with them and reside in them.”