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5th Sunday of Lent - Cycle B

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Our Cycle B readings bring the theme of covenant to a close this week (as next week we celebrate Palm Sunday).  Through our readings this Lenten cycle we’ve been witness to key covenant moments that God had, first with Noah, then Abraham, then Moses, then David.  As we know, however, in all these covenants, the people fell eventually away… turned away from God.  Now it’s time for something new… what we Christians understand to be the New Covenant…

The Word for the 5th Sunday of Lent
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalms 51:3-4, 12-13, 14-15
Hebrews 5:7-9
John 12:20-33

First we hear from Jeremiah, who’s prophecy covers the final days of the Kingdom of Judah.  This week’s passage comes from a time of trouble, where the end for Jerusalem is near.  Yet in the face of certain doom, Jeremiah is able to preach of a restoration where we here the Lord's desire to make "a new covenant with the house Israel and the house of Judah."  This prophecy of the restoration is echoed in our Psalm, which sings “create in me a new heart.”  The Lord stands ready to forgive our offences, even as Jerusalem is about to fall.

Redemption, however, is not without sacrifice, and our second reading examines the cost.  In a passage from the letter to the Hebrews, we are reminded of Jesus’ suffering and death.  A suffering that Jesus could have avoided, but because of his willful obedience, he endured to bring eternal salvation for all.  The promise of Jeremiah’s New Covenant fulfilled.

Our gospel from John then takes us to the beginning of Jesus’ final hours.  Jesus tells Phillip and Andrew that “the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”  That like a grain of wheat, unless he falls to the ground and dies, he cannot then rise to bring new life.  Only this sacrifice will seal this new covenant between God and all his people.

Final Thoughts:
Our gospel this week literally ends with a voice of thunder, God’s promise to glorify Jesus through his death and then again through his resurrection.  God has spoken to his people and told them that their fate is now in Jesus’ hands… hands that will soon be nailed to a cross.  Why do we dwell on such horrific events?  Jesus died two thousand years ago.  His resurrection gave us the salvation that was prophesied, two thousand years ago.  The reason comes from Jesus himself, “Do this in memory of me.”  At every Mass we ritually relive that sacrifice as a reminder of Jesus’ great love for us.  Lent affords us the opportunity to reexamine our relationship with God anew.  A relationship… a covenant… made possible through Jesus’ great sacrifice.  May we never take that sacrifice for granted.

Remembering our baptism is also a priority for Lent.  In our first reading the new covenant Jeremiah speaks of is lived out through our Baptism.  Through our Baptism we are made one of God’s chosen and our sins are forgiven.  Our second reading reminds us of Jesus’s necessary and obedient death so that he could be glorified.  Our baptism shares in this obedient death to our former selves and our re-birth to our new selves, the chosen of God, followers of Christ, and aided by the Spirit.  Our Gospel from John also speaks of Jesus’ necessary death in order to bring new life.  Again, our baptism is a death and re-birth, one that has us committing ourselves to Christ, with all the risk and reward that may entail.

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