FIRTH SUNDAY OF LENT: Theme: A TIME TO FALL TO THE GROUND

READINGS AT MASS

Jer. 31:31-34

Psalm 51

Heb 5:7-9

John 12:20-33

Dear friends in Christ, N'wokafu YESU KRISTO...

In today's First Reading, God assures the people of a New Covenant that will replace the old one. A covenant of love and a personal relationship with God. It will also mark the end (death) of the stringent old covenant. Every new beginning requires some form of dying. Death and degeneration is very important for the beginning of greatness. 

In the Gospel, Jesus speaks about the long awaited Hour of His Glorification using a simple but profound fact of nature. The seed must fall into the ground and die in the order to grow and bear many fruits. For Jesus, the Hour of His Glorification, like a grain of wheat falling to the ground, will come from His passion and death. His death will mark the end and the destruction of all that is old and unproductive and give way to the new and fruitful in His victorious resurrection. Glory and salvation will come from the annihilation of His body. 

Beloved in Christ, true glory comes from falling unto the ground and dying. This is the beginning of all that is good and fruitful. When we spend our lives for others and sacrifice our existence for a cause that is good, we eventually preserve them (our lives). Even the so-called secular world remembers nothing of the millions of people who passed this way but contribute nothing to the well-being of society. 

Lent is a time to fall unto the ground and die to sin and self in order to rise to a new and a productive beginning to the glory of God. This is the beginning of salvation. It is a time to start anew. Like a grain of wheat, we must learn to fall unto the ground in selfless service to others and die to an old and unproductive way of life; a sinful life. It is only then do we rise to a new, better and a fruitful life in Christ Jesus. 

PRAYER

By your grace, I beseech you, Lord, may I walk eagerly in that same charity with which, out of love for the world, your Son handed Himself over to death on the Cross. Amen.

May God bless you.

-Rev. Fr. Kenneth Debre

Sunday, March 21, 2021.

Holy Rosary Parish, Hohoe