Fifth Sunday of Lent

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032215-fifth-sunday-lent.cfm

There was a priest on staff at the seminary I attended who is known for his jokes. The man loves puns. If you are sitting across the dinner table from him, chances are he will at some point during the meal pick up the salt shaker and begin to put some salt on his food. He would then gently shake it in your direction so that a little salt would come flying towards you. He would then say in a dead pan voice, “You have just been assaulted”. On rainy April days, he was known to come up to people and ask, “If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?” When the bewildered seminarian would say that he had no idea he would reply, “Pilgrims! Get it? Mayflowers?” This would typically follow with a few chuckles and a lot of groans.

One of my favorite jokes from this priest usually came up when two seminarians were having a conversation about who did a better job on something. Sometimes one of the guys might act all macho, pretending like he thought he really was the best. This usually resulted in some good natured teasing or ribbing from the other guys. This priest would often jump in by giving what at first sounded like a complement to the one who acted all macho, but then would finish with a back-handed complement. He acted like he was saying it under his breath, but he still said it loud enough so those around him could hear. It usually went like this: “Hey! Don't be hard on him. He's angel, (fallen). He's a gem, (cracked). He's a treasure, (should be buried)”. The jokes were of course done all in good fun and were always taken as such. The seminarians always seemed to liked how those “complements” were contradictory or paradoxical but still flowed together so well.

People in our culture seem to be attracted to things that are paradoxical or contradictory. We like a character in a book or a movie or a TV show that starts out as flawed, and unsavory, and maybe rough around the edges who turns into a hero by the end of the story. People love an underdog at a sporting event. If a team that is expected to do poorly in a season or even just in a specific game, if they start doing well a whole bunch of “closet fans” come out of the woodwork to cheer on the team. Fans love it too when a player who very few people have heard of before suddenly gets into his groove and gets really good at his game. People like those Cinderella sports stories because, like the unsavory character who turns into the hero, you don't expect them to do even remotely well. It's the joy of realizing that we were wrong about the person and that everything has turned out good in the end.

During this Season of Lent we Christians reflect on and indeed we celebrate an event that is perhaps the biggest paradox in the history of humanity: I am talking about how Our Lord Jesus Christ died so that we, His followers, might inherit eternal life. This is beautifully talked about by Jesus in our Gospel reading for today. “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”. Technically, I don't believe that a botanist would say that a grain of wheat, or any seed that falls from the plant, is necessarily dead. If it were dead, no amount of watering or sunlight would get it to sprout a new wheat plant or stock. The life within the seed is dormant until the proper water and soil allow it to germinate. For Jesus' purpose of symbolizing His passion, however, the analogy is still a good one. When we see a leaf or a seed or a flower or a nut or any other twig fall from a plant, for most people it will probably appear to be dead. You cannot reattach a seed, or a flower, or a leaf, et cetera that has fallen from the living plant. Yet through little miracles that God has given us in creation, a little soil and water can cause a seed to sprout and begin a new life. If we did not study that in science class as we grew up we would probably never expect that to happen.

It is contradictory to say that something can die and then become alive again and bring life to others. A thing (a plant, an animal, or a human) cannot be dead and then alive, yet that is what at least appears to happen on the surface with wheat. It makes even less sense to say that a man would die and then rise again. Yet that is precisely what our Christian faith professes in regards to Jesus Christ. Even more paradoxical, Jesus does this, not for His own sake or for His own pleasure, but for all of us. A grain of wheat produces a plant, which produces more wheat, which is able to provide life by feeding people. Likewise, by dying and rising again, Jesus provides everlasting life for those who believe in Him.

Jesus is fulfilling a special covenant between God and all of us. Remember, a covenant is more than just a promise or a contract between two people or businesses. It is more like a vow or an oath that a person takes in order to agree to something. In this case we agreed to follow God when we were baptized, and God agreed to bring us to everlasting life through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus. That is the covenant that God has established with us. He speaks about this new covenant through the words of the Prophet Jeremiah in our First Reading today. God explains that this new covenant will not be like the old covenant that He made with the Israelites when He lead them out of Egypt. That covenant was broken again and again by the various sins of the people in the Old Testament. The problem seemed to be that they did not know who their God was. In this new covenant, God says, His law will be written in their hearts. “I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ... All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.” God wished to forgive our sins and to bring us to everlasting life. That is why He gave us His Son.

It may seem odd that a man should die for us. It may seem odd that God would send His Son to die for us, but that's what He's done. Let us work to respond to God's covenant. For He sent His Son to bring us salvation.