{"id":2457,"date":"2018-03-18T12:26:46","date_gmt":"2018-03-18T16:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2457"},"modified":"2018-03-18T12:26:46","modified_gmt":"2018-03-18T16:26:46","slug":"5th-sunday-of-lent-year-b-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/5th-sunday-of-lent-year-b-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"5th Sunday of Lent, Year B – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

5th<\/sup> Sunday of Lent, Year B<\/a>
\nJeremiah 31:31-34
\nPsalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 14-15
\nHebrews 5:7-9
\nJohn 12:20-33
\nMarch 18, 2018<\/p>\n

When Mary came to Jesus at the wedding feast in Cana to ask him to help, his response was \u201cMy hour has not yet come<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Now, some three years later, some Greeks came to see Jesus.\u00a0 When Jesus hears this, his response this time is \u201cThe hour has come<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201chour\u201d has come for what?\u00a0 Jesus continues, \u201cfor the Son of Man to be glorified.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Of course, \u201cthe Son of Man<\/em>\u201d is a reference to Jesus. \u00a0How is he glorified? By being lifted up on the Cross.<\/p>\n

How is being lifted up on a cross a way of being \u201cglorified\u201d?\u00a0 Crucifixion was considered to be the worst and most humiliating form of execution.\u00a0 His life was taken from him, or was it?<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 life was not taken<\/em><\/strong> from him.\u00a0 He freely<\/em><\/strong> gave it up in obedience to his Father.\u00a0 Jesus knew \u201cit was for this purpose\u201d <\/em>that he came \u201cto this hour.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Jesus came because, as we heard last week, \u201cGod so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Jesus came to die for our sins so that we might have eternal life.<\/p>\n

While he knew it was his purpose, it was not easy.\u00a0 As Hebrews tells us, Jesus \u201coffered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus prayed in agony in the garden knowing what was to come.\u00a0 He suffered greatly as he was mocked, beaten, and crucified.<\/p>\n

As he did this, \u201che became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him<\/em>.\u201d In accepting this suffering in obedience to his Father, he showed us the value of \u201cobedience\u201d and \u201csuffering.\u201d<\/p>\n

He showed us that life comes from death.<\/p>\n

In strictly human terms, this makes no sense.\u00a0 How can life come from death?\u00a0 Here Jesus says, \u201cUnless 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<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

A seed must give up its existence as a seed<\/em><\/strong> to bear fruit, to realize its full potential.\u00a0 In the same way, a caterpillar must enter a cocoon to begin the next stage of its life as a butterfly.\u00a0 A caterpillar crawls around on the ground but a butterfly can fly.<\/p>\n

We need to be willing to let go of the things of this world to receive eternal life.\u00a0 We need to let go of our attachments, not just possessions, but everything like our favorite activities.<\/p>\n

We need to let go of everything to become all that God calls us to be.\u00a0 It\u2019s not enough just to fit God into our schedule once in a while.<\/p>\n

Some people say they don\u2019t come to church much because they don\u2019t get much out of it.\u00a0 Sometimes we don\u2019t get much out of church because we don\u2019t understand what we do or why we do it.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we need to be willing to put some effort into learning about what we do and why.\u00a0 Why do we genuflect?\u00a0 How are the readings selected?\u00a0 What does the color of the vestments represent?\u00a0 (You can find some of these answers in my article “The Roman Catholic Mass Explained”<\/a>).<\/p>\n

I said before it isn\u2019t enough to come to church once in a while.\u00a0 When we are tempted to come less because we don\u2019t get much out of it, what we actually need to do is come more often.\u00a0 Yet, it isn\u2019t about the tabulating the number of hours we spend in church.\u00a0 It\u2019s about giving our whole<\/u><\/em><\/strong> life to Jesus.\u00a0 After all, that is what Jesus did for us on the Cross.\u00a0 He gained nothing by his Crucifixion but through his suffering and Crucifixion we get eternal life.<\/p>\n

In his pastoral letter<\/a> calling for our current Year of the Eucharist that continues until June, Bishop Matano spoke of our obligation to attend Mass each week (Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/em>,\u00a02181) except for serious reason such as illness or the care of infants (I\u2019ll add deep snow).\u00a0 We need to put God first in our lives.<\/p>\n

To get more out of coming to Mass, we need to realize it isn\u2019t all about \u201cme.\u201d\u00a0 The first purpose of Mass is to praise God.\u00a0 In doing so, through the prayers, readings, and the Eucharist, we open ourselves to all that God offers us.<\/p>\n

This can require a little preparation time.\u00a0 Are you able to get here before Mass and offer a prayer to open yourself to God\u2019s action in your life?\u00a0 How quickly do you leave at the end (or even before the end)?<\/p>\n

How about the rest of the week?\u00a0 Do you give God time each day to keep yourself aware of his loving presence?<\/p>\n

Are you willing to give up the things and activities of this world to know Jesus in the next?<\/p>\n

this world to know Jesus in the next?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5th Sunday of Lent, Year B Jeremiah 31:31-34 Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 14-15 Hebrews 5:7-9 John 12:20-33 March 18, 2018 When Mary came to Jesus at the wedding feast in Cana to ask him to help, his response was \u201cMy hour has not yet come.\u201d\u00a0 Now, some three years later, some Greeks came to see Jesus.\u00a0 …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘5th Sunday of Lent, Year B – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82,260],"tags":[418,419],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-DD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2457"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2458,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457\/revisions\/2458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}