2024

March 17, 2024

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5th Sunday of Lent B

While for men the normal order of concepts is life-death, this order is reversed in Jesus Christ: death-life. The liturgy talks to us about these two realities and their relationship. The grain of wheat must die in order for it to live again and bear fruit, one must lose one’s life to live eternally (Gospel). By subjecting himself to death in filial obedience, Jesus lives again as high priest who intercedes for us before God (second reading). In the death of Jesus, who comes back to life and gives us life, the new covenant is fulfilled, a covenant no longer sealed with the blood of animals but written on the heart; a spiritual and eternal covenant (first reading).

DOCTRINAL MESSAGES

5th Sunday of Lent B

The most frequent human tendency is to divide, dissociate, separate, confront. Jesus, who came from God, acts in a different way and teaches us to behave like him. We tend to separate the infamy of suffering from the splendor of glory: Jesus combines them in himself because the Father wants them to be united in Christ and in us. This way suffering is glorious; and the foundation of glory is pain. Man wants to bear fruit without dying, but this is impossible; Jesus accepts being a seed that dies beneath the earth in order to bear abundant fruit. In Jesus, two strongly antagonistic realities join hands: death and fruitfulness. We prefer being served to serving; Christ preferred serving to being served. In this unconditional serving the salvation of humankind was "served" to him by the Father. In general, we are not willing to lose our life (to give it up for the good of others), and yet, this is precisely how we lose it. Christ, instead, lost it. He did not hang on to it. This way he gained it forever and gave us the possibility of "gaining" it too by following in his footsteps. The paschal mystery of Jesus Christ lies in this conjunction: to lose the world in order to gain it later.

In the Gospel of Saint John Jesus’ encounter with the Greeks (representing non-Jewish humanity) is combined with Jesus’ hour, in other words, his Passion-Death-Resurrection. Therefore, Jesus’ hour is the hour of universal redemption through suffering and glorification. Both aspects shine with special brightness in the second reading. First the suffering: "During his life on earth, he offered up prayer and entreaty, with loud cries and with tears, to the one who had the power to save him from death, and, winning a hearing by his reverence, he learnt obedience." These cries and tears, so human, are part of his hour, his time and his way of saving us. This, however, is followed by the hour of glory: "When he had been perfected… [he] was acclaimed by God with the title of high priest." High priest of the new covenant, of the new human heart, of the new law written in the deepest part of the soul.

Jesus’ hour is also the hour of the new person. The suffering and glorification of Jesus fulfill Jeremiah’s prophecy, which the liturgy presents to us in the first reading. The new covenant between God and humankind will be sealed with the blood of Christ. The provisions of this new covenant will not be written in stone, nor will Moses be the one who will communicate them. God himself will write them inside the heart and the Holy Spirit will "read" clearly, in an intelligible and personal way, the contents of the new law, the law of the Spirit, to all those that wish to listen. This is why Saint John tells us that everyone will be educated by God, from the youngest to the oldest. The Passion-Death-Resurrection of Jesus Christ gives all of humankind the grace of entering into a pact of friendship and communion with God our Lord, and thus become new, genuine, even "divine" men.

PASTORAL SUGGESTIONS

5th Sunday of Lent B

To suffer for the sake of suffering is absurd and unworthy of man. To suffer because "there is no other way," because this is the human condition, is a very poor reason, although it is often heard. To suffer to show one’s self-control or one’s human grandeur is a path chosen by few, and a choice that almost always suffers from pride. To suffer out of faithfulness to a number of principles and beliefs that are the foundation of one’s life: here lies the true meaning and value of suffering. It is suffering to be faithful to one’s conscience, although external stimuli induce one to live according to the principle of carpe diem and to want to satisfy the thousand temptations of vice and sin. It is suffering to be faithful to the duties of one’s state in life, with sincerity and perseverance, without being afraid of appearing "weak" and without fear for the opinion of others. It means suffering to be faithful to one’s religious beliefs: as a Catholic, a religious, a priest, always and in every situation behaving in a consistent and genuine manner. In the eyes of God, not only does this suffering have a meaning, but it also has an everlasting value: a value of redemption, like the suffering of Jesus Christ. This suffering is not easy, and thus is always beautiful and especially fruitful. Let us place our hand on our heart and ask ourselves whether we have suffered to be faithful, whether we are willing to suffer out of faithfulness to God and man, our brother.

It is difficult to keep a balance in our relations with people, and in our relations with God. Either we are cold, because we base our relationships on reason, which does not accept being "warmed up". Or else we are sentimental, making feelings the basis for a real relationship, either with men or God. However, we know that feelings are subject to the changing of circumstances, of external occurrences, of states of mind… Feelings are warm but lack logic, order and stability. Another alternative would be to try to base our relationships on the heart, where the strength of logic meets the warmth of feeling, and the warm feeling penetrates the coldness of reason. The heart is the place of the "encounter", of the most genuine relationship among persons, and between people and God. This is why the Christian religion is a religion of the heart. When attempts were made to turn Christianity into a religion of reason, we slipped into the coldness of abstraction or in dogmatic and moral rigor, in the style of Jansen. When Christianity was turned into a religion of feeling, the result was a sickeningly sweet sentimentalism and a not very intelligent Fideism. Only the heart (the center of reason, affectivity and passions) may give shape to the Christian religion. If you have not yet converted to the religion of the heart, take advantage of this time of Lent to do so. Do not miss this opportunity.

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The Sign of the Cross

21 March 2021 | Library of the Apostolic Palace

5th Sunday of Lent B

On this Fifth Sunday of Lent, the liturgy proclaims the Gospel in which Saint John refers to an episode that occurred in the final days of Christ’s life, shortly before the Passion (cf. Jn 12:20-33). While Jesus was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, several Greeks, curious because of what he had been doing, express the wish to see him. They approach the apostle Philip and say to him: “We wish to see Jesus” (v. 21). “We wish to see Jesus”…

The sign of the Cross comes to mind, which over the centuries has become the symbol par excellence of Christians. Even today, those who wish to “see Jesus”, perhaps coming from countries and cultures where Christianity is not well-known, what do they see first? What is the most common sign they encounter? The Crucifix, the Cross. In churches, in the homes of Christians, even worn on their persons. The important thing is that the sign be consistent with the Gospel: the cross cannot but express love, service, unreserved self-giving: only in this way is it truly the “tree of life”, of overabundant life.

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The Meaning of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection

18 March 2018 | Saint Peter’s Square

5th Sunday of Lent B

Today’s Gospel invites us to turn our gaze to the Crucifix which is not an ornamental object or a clothing accessory — abused at times! Rather, it is a religious symbol to contemplate and to understand. Within the image of Jesus crucified is revealed the mystery of the death of the Son as a supreme act of love, the source of life and salvation for humanity of all ages. We have been healed in his wounds.

I may think: “How do I look at the Crucifix? As a work of art, to see if it is beautiful or not? Or do I look within; do I penetrate Jesus’ wounds unto the depths of his heart? Do I look at the mystery of God who was humiliated unto death, like a slave, like a criminal?”. Do not forget this: look to the Crucifix, but look within it. There is a beautiful devotional way of praying one “Our Father” for each of the five wounds. When we pray that “Our Father”, we are trying to enter within, through the wounds of Jesus, inside his very heart. And there we will learn the great wisdom of the mystery of Christ, the great wisdom of the Cross.

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“We Wish to See Jesus”

22 March 2015 | Saint Peter’s Square

5th Sunday of Lent B

Responding indirectly, in a prophetic way, to that request to be able to see Him, Jesus pronounces a prophecy that reveals his identity and shows the path to know Him truly: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (Jn 12:23). It is the hour of the Cross! It is the time for the defeat of Satan, prince of evil, and of the definitive triumph of the merciful love of God. Christ declares that He will be “lifted up from the earth” (v. 32), an expression with a twofold meaning: “lifted” because He is crucified, and “lifted” because He is exalted by the Father in the Resurrection, to draw everyone to Him and to reconcile mankind with God and among themselves. The hour of the Cross, the darkest in history, is also the source of salvation for those who believe in Him.

Continuing in his prophecy of the imminent Passover, Jesus uses a simple and suggestive image, that of the “‘grain of wheat’ that, once fallen into the earth, dies in order to bear fruit (cf. v. 24). In this image we find another aspect of the Cross of Christ: that of fruitfulness. The death of Jesus, in fact, is an inexhaustible source of new life, because it carries within itself the regenerative strength of God’s love. Immersed in this love through Baptism, Christians can become “grains of wheat” and bear much fruit if they, like Jesus, “lose their life” out of love for God and brothers and sisters (cf. v. 25).

For this reason, to those who, today too, “wish to see Jesus”, to those who are searching for the face of God; to those who received catechesis when they were little and then developed it no further and perhaps have lost their faith; to so many who have not yet encountered Jesus personally…; to all these people we can offer three things: the Gospel, the Crucifix and the witness of our faith, poor but sincere. The Gospel: there we can encounter Jesus, listen to Him, know Him. The Crucifix: the sign of the love of Jesus who gave Himself for us. And then a faith that is expressed in simple gestures of fraternal charity. But mainly in the coherence of life, between what we say and what we do. Coherence between our faith and our life, between our words and our actions: Gospel, Crucifix, Witness.

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Homily During Apostolic Journey to Mexico and the Republic of Cuba for the 5th Sunday of Lent (Year B)

25 March 2012 | Expo Bicentenario Park, León – Apostolic Journey to Mexico and the Republic of Cuba

5th Sunday of Lent B

I am very pleased to be among you today and I express my sincere gratitude to the Most Reverend José Guadalupe Martín Rábago, Archbishop of León, for his kind words of welcome. I greet the Mexican Bishops, and the Cardinals and other Bishops present here, and in a special way those who have come from Latin America and the Caribbean. I also extend a warm greeting to the authorities that are with us, as well as all who have gathered for this Holy Mass presided by the Successor of Peter.

We said, “A pure heart, create for me, O God” (Ps 50:12) during the responsorial psalm. This exclamation shows us how profoundly we must prepare to celebrate next week the great mystery of the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord. It also helps us to look deeply into the human heart, especially in times of sorrow as well as hope, as are the present times for the people of Mexico and of Latin America.

The desire for a heart that would be pure, sincere, humble, acceptable to God was very much felt by Israel as it became aware of the persistence in its midst of evil and sin as a power, practically implacable and impossible to overcome. There was nothing left but to trust in God’s mercy and in the hope that he would change from within, from the heart, an unbearable, dark and hopeless situation. In this way recourse gained ground to the infinite mercy of the Lord who does not wish the sinner to die but to convert and live (cf. Ez 33:11). A pure heart, a new heart, is one which recognizes that, of itself, it is impotent and places itself in God’s hands so as to continue hoping in his promises. Then the psalmist can say to the Lord with conviction: “Sinners will return to you” (Ps 50:15). And towards the end of the psalm he will give an explanation which is at the same time a firm conviction of faith: “A humble, contrite heart you will not spurn” (v. 19).