Happy St. Patrick’s Day
Homily For The Fifth Sunday of Lent [ Year B] March 17, 2024
“If you love your life you will lose it, but if you hate your life in this world, you will gain it for eternal life.”Jn 12:25
Sunday Readings
My Dearest Friends in Christ,
Today is the 5th Sunday of Lent. The stage is gradually being set; the hour of paying the ultimate price is almost at hand. We must persevere to the end with Christ in this Lenten journey to die to sin and rise to the newness of life in His Resurrection.
Christ Embraced The Cup of Suffering To Inaugurate The New and Everlasting Covenant
The readings of today, especially the Gospel, highlight that aspect of Christian life, that defines what true love consists of and the inner struggle of Jesus in accepting the cup of suffering to inaugurate the new and everlasting Covenant. However, Jesus accepts the Cross as his “hour,” meaning the stepping-stone to His Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Exaltation. He also considers His “hour” as the way of glorifying His Heavenly Father and of being glorified by His Father. The message of last Sunday invited us to rejoice for we are especially loved by God, a love He showed by offering Himself to die in obedience to His Father’s Will. He was tortured, bruised, mocked, nailed on the Cross, and finally died for us. What a love and sacrifice so profound and complete! Through His death and Resurrection Jesus established a new covenant in His Blood as we heard in the first reading. From an old covenant of judgment to a new covenant of forgiveness of sin.
The Gospel of today is set in the context of the Passover Feast. Remember what that’s about? The Passover is the celebration of the Israelites’ liberation from bondage in Egypt. It’s about freedom and new life. It’s about letting go, leaving behind, and moving into a new life.
Called To A New Life in Christ
New life and eternal life are possible only by death to self through suffering and service. Our covenant with God is incomplete if we are not ready to toe His path of suffering and dying for others. To be His disciples we must be where He is on the cross. By embracing His Cross Jesus showed us an example we should follow(cf. 1 Peter 2:21). A true Christian does not seek his or her comfort at the expense of others. Salt gives its taste by dissolving in water. A candle gives light by burning its wick and melting its wax. We gain eternal life by dying to ourselves. This implies dying to sin: selfishness, pride, and greed, so others may live better. “We make a living through what we get but we make a life by what we give.”
You Must Die To Live: The Christian Paradox
The paradox of our Christian life is that we must die to live. It is the sequence of life to lose something to gain something. In the Scriptures, we saw Abram who left his country and kindred so that he might be made a great nation. He was renamed Abraham to be a blessing to all the families of the earth. Jacob lost his old identity so that he could become a new man, Israel, with a new life. James and John left their father, boats, and nets to become disciples of Jesus and fishers of people. Jesus taught his disciples, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill Him and three days after being killed, He will rise again.” (Mark 9:31).
Everyone values his or her life and comfort. We are often afraid of leaving what we have because we are uncertain of what is to come. Humans have the instinct of self-preservation, and so no one wants to die for another. But does it look like Jesus doesn’t have that instinct as a man? Sure He does, but He went against it to save us. Does it look like Jesus enjoyed suffering? Of course, no one loves to suffer, but Jesus accepted willingly to suffer because He loves us and values our salvation more than His life. Have you ever risked your life to rescue another? Have you ever deprived yourself of some comfort to help another? Think of Maximillian Kolbe who gave his life so that another man could live.
Christian Life Finds Its Fullest Meaning in The Cross
Our Christian calling finds its meaning in Christ’s death on the Cross. It will be a mockery of His death if we refuse to be inconvenienced to accommodate others. If we can’t deprive ourselves of our comfort to make others better, where then is the Christianity we profess? We need to step out of our comfort zone to discover thousands whose lives we can change by our sacrifices. We have to voluntarily embrace suffering to achieve a higher good in society. Selfishness and greed have worsened the plight of our suffering humanity; this can only be remedied by our gratuitous sacrifices and self-denial. Many things are going wrong today because no one wants to give up anything for another. When we give up our pleasures in pursuit of a worthy cause of action, we become better persons; we touch lives, and we change the world. A life spent in sacrificial offering to God and others will never go unrewarded in this life nor in the next, such was the case of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
May God help us to discover what it takes to be His children. May He increase His Grace within us to be ever ready to give up what matters most to us in sacrifice and service to others.
We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way. Many who seem to us to be children of the devil will still become Christ’s disciples.
–St. Francis of Assisi
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I keep you and your family always in my prayers. ©Clem C. Aladi (2024)
