Homily for the 5th Sunday of Lent, March 17, 2024. Gospel of St. John 12:20-33. Theme: The Mystery of the Cross: Dying Gives Life!
Today's Gospel is about an ordinary encounter between Jesus and some Greeks who have come to see him, most likely because they have heard about his wondrous powers. But it turns into an occasion for Christ to teach them what it means to follow him as a disciple. I think that their simple request, "We would like to see Jesus," expresses a desire or at least a curiosity that is within all of us. For who among us doesn’t want to seek and then find the awesome presence of the miracle-working Christ in our lives?
These Gentile seekers, like so many others, were most likely hoping for a miracle or an answer to some perplexing question in their lives. We do not know any details whatsoever about their meeting with him, but I am guessing that the Lord’s words about death, burial and new life were not what they expected to hear. Perhaps like them, you have heard things about Jesus that have both intrigued you and perplexed you at the same time? Perhaps, like these Greeks, his words about dying and rising repel you but at the same time mysteriously attract you and you want to know more? What does he really mean?
Jesus speaks of a grain of wheat falling to the ground and dying in order to bear much fruit. That illustration would have made sense to his listeners whose daily lives were intimately tied to the earth and its natural cycles. But then he continues on and seems to start talking in riddles. He uses this growth process of wheat as a metaphor about following him, about hating one’s life in order to end up really finding it and living it into eternity! In other words, Jesus was saying that just as the grain-seed must undergo a process of death and burial in order to bring forth new life, so too we, his disciples, must let go of our old ways and bury them as dead and gone if we want to become more fully alive and transformed in Christ.
This “death of the ego” is what “hating one’s life” means in biblical language. It doesn’t mean despising our human existence as we might think it means in modern English! This on-going process of “hating one’s life”, that is, of eradicating selfishness and following Jesus’ example, is not easy but neither is it optional for the person who seeks to be a Christian in truth and just not in name. And just as the seed, once buried in the earth, eventually bursts forth into new life, so will we also begin to burst forth with new life in Christ as we put ourselves aside and humbly surrender to the teachings of his Gospel.
Following Jesus requires this radical reordering of our priorities. We must “fall to the ground and die”, so to speak, to our self-focused plans and our stubborn insistence in living life on our own terms. Our innermost desire to see Jesus and be with him overrides our lesser desires and gives us the willingness to let go of anything that is an obstacle to developing and cherishing our relationship with Christ. When we die to self and bury the grain-seed of our pretenses and pride (which so often are really ways of hiding fear and insecurity) it brings something new and beautiful to life within us.
It breaks open our hard outer shell and releases new life in the Holy Spirit, whom we first received at Baptism and in a deeper outpouring at Confirmation. The Spirit waters the buried seed and soon enough signs of budding life begin to slowly blossom and bloom into Christian virtue and holiness. We won’t see this development happening right away, but our growth will be steady so long as we keep tilling the soil of our lives with humility, surrender and trust in Christ.
Ultimately, when all is said and done, Jesus' words to the Greeks and to us today point to the cross, which is always at the center of Christian life and spirituality. He speaks of his own impending death as the culmination of his mission on earth, of it being the ultimate act of sacrificial love. As we continue our journey through this season of Lent, we are called to walk with Jesus on the road to Calvary. He asks us to embrace the cross out of love and not to run away from it, for it is the instrument of God’s transforming grace.
So, let’s respond wholeheartedly to the invitation to follow him that Jesus offers us today. Let’s be willing to let go of our old selves, to die to our old desires, and to embrace a new life that God offers us in Christ. He promises to be with us every step of the way and assures us that, in exchange for losing our lives for his sake, he will transform them into lives that exist with him forever.
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