Check the Sundays gone by: First the devil lifts him up in the desert, then the Father lifts him up at Mt. Tabor, then Jesus "lifts up" ordinary people - Jews and Gentiles - who came to the temple to worship at the Passover by chasing away those who made his Father's house into a den of thieves and then we had Moses lifting up the bronze serpent in the desert as a symbol of raising people from the snake bites. First one was to tempt (worldly gratification), second was to comfort (spiritual consolation in prayer), third to cleanse and liberate people (mission, ministries) and the fourth was healing and salvation. Now Jesus says, "when I am lifted up..." This is to me daily crucifixion. This is an ultimate human and spiritual desire to be lifted up from the darkness, sorrows, debts, daily chores, disappointments, failures and even deaths...from this world (moksha). This is the cry of Christians from Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and India. This is the shout of black people from Fergusson, Alabama, USA. Who's there to lift us up? Our mission is to lift people up. When husbands and wives, parents and teachers, politicians and bureaucrats learn to lift up their wards, each other, our society, our nation will get saved. Every confession, spiritual direction, counselling, preaching, every hand that wipes the tears off the cheeks, every arm that holds is to "lift up".
Thousands of people thronged to the convent of Jesus and Mary in Nadia, West Bengal, India to console a 71 year old sister (religious nun) who was brutally gang-raped - "to lift her up...." They were touched by her prayers for her attackers. She was "lifting them up". She knew the seed must die if it has to produce fruit. She too perhaps wanted not to have this experience, "if possible, take this away from me..." But she too has meditated that "if you want to serve me, you must follow my example..." This is the way a Christian will produce fruit. VHP in India continues to deride and make a mockery of the attack. "They sneered at him and lanced him." You can't preach an easy Christianity. There is no Christianity without the cross.
DK Ravi was an upright IAS officer who served Karnataka State, India. He took on the corrupt mafia elements in the state and they got him transferred elsewhere. Yesterday, the 35 year old Ravi was found dead in mysterious circumstances. There was a spontaneous outburst of protest and rally in his district and throughout the state. His flex photos and pictures were "lifted up" by people blocking traffic and shutting down business. He had to die! Martin Luther King, Jr. Mahatma Gandhi and many others were lifted up by people. But the seed had to die.
Death and resurrection: paradox of life, paradox of nature. The seed must die before it can give life or produce more fruit. Every seed has an outer sheath of protection to safeguard it from tear and wear, to enable it withstand the elements, transportation and what not. We too wear masks, personalities, and hides of sociological, cultural, religious and ideological sheaths to protect us or avoid interaction and change. A new pastor, teacher, official has to go through a "breaking in" period. Our shyness, embarrassments, facing a congregation, retorts, refusals are part of that "breaking in" before we are comfortable with our job, ministry, people....with ourselves and our styles. The seed must die before it can produce fruit. With the right moisture and manure the essence (the value, the principle, the core, kernel for which the person came into this world) will not die. It will produce fruit for the world, for the society. They will follow your examples, principles and values. You will be lifted up.
The Greeks came to Jesus. Most of the people who showed up at the hospital to visit the sister were not Christians. Faith lived through the cross attracts more witnesses than preached. There are fewer words from Jesus as he moves to Calvary. There is only the seed dying. We need the patience to wait for the period between the seed dying and the new shoots coming up. The raising up takes time: like the exam results, job promotion, salary raises, children born after marriage, etc.....but you WILL be lifted up!
Tony Kayala, c.s.c.
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Thomas O'Loughlin
As we approach Holy Week and our celebration of Christ’s mystery, his death and resurrection being our opening to the fullness of life, today we read in the gospel that anyone who loves his life, loses it, any anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. This challenges each of us to recognize just how different a vision of life we must have if we are to serve and follow Jesus Christ.
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– Verses 20 to 22 show us some Greeks “wanting to see Jesus”. It is of course interesting in that they made their way to Jesus through a disciple who had a Greek name. He was Andrew who was from Bethsaida and had come with Jesus all the way from Galilee.
This quickly became one of the main principles of evangelisation – people must be approached by those like them. The principle was followed in the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of St Paul. St Paul himself was an exception in that he was a Jew, but his name Paul fitted more specially the gospel of the Greeks.
– Verse 23 shows us that Jesus is fully conscious that at this stage of his life “his hour has come“. He knows he is in a crisis moment. This is something that happens from time to time in the life of every person. It usually happens to us just once or twice; it is a time when we feel at the bottom of the pile.
Anything can happen to us; we have all gone through this and must measure our responses by what we know was in the mind of Jesus as he went through it.
– Verse 24 is a very brief parable.
We learn first to feel the pain of “it falls on the ground“. We can well imagine what this involves. The seed has fallen on the ground and it is just there. It waits to see if it will lie there unused and helpless; here and now it will be open to every eventuality.
Then we enter into the second moment of “it dies.” The “dying” reminds us that we are actually in a position of being closed to new life. We are not sure whether we will lie there or whether this death will lead to new life.
This “hour” has two possible outcomes:
– We can remain only a single grain of wheat, safe in ourselves but also isolated with no possibility of bringing out further harvest. This may well describe how we are at this particular time.( c/f diagram>)
– We can yield a rich harvest. We are then sure of bringing forth fruit in others. We allow our passing (dread though it be to us) to bring new life to others. Their life will be more full because of what we have done for them.
– Verse 25 is the same teaching but the contrast is now between
– clinging to the present and losing what one has;
– on the contrary, risking the present with the effect of saving the future.
Identify with both possibilities. One is sad but tragic, the other is full of great glory for ourselves and for others.
- Verse 26 makes the teaching personal. “If a man serves me, he must follow me, wherever I am, my servant will be there too.” Jesus himself has made this journey of faith. He allowed himself to fall on the ground in uncertainty and then to die. He was totally unsure of what would happen afterward, whether he would bring life to others or not, but he went ahead and accepted it.
“If anyone serves me, my Father will honour him“. Jesus broadens the picture. His “father” here includes all those who give this person the honour he or she deserve.
– As a follow up, verse 27 invites us to accompany Jesus on his journey. This is John’s account of what the Synoptic gospels relate as Jesus’ well known “agony in the garden”. His first petition is that the Father would change his mind: “Father save me from this hour; my soul is sorrowful even unto death”. This then becomes the second petition, “nevertheless let it be as you, not I would have it”. It finally ends with “let your will be done”.
From Jesus’ words, we can then gauge the movement from Jesus’ first petition, “save me from this hour“, to the more glorious one of “Father, glorify your name”. This is the first petition of the Our Father and in biblical language means the same as the second and third petitions – “your kingdom come” and “your will be done”.
– In verses 28 to 30 Jesus says, quite simply, that the voice from heaven, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again” arose not for the sake of Jesus himself but in order to please the onlookers – “It was not for my sake but for yours.” The onlookers will then be able to see for themselves that everything that happened to Jesus came from their own experience of suffering.
– Verses 31 and 32 express the attitude of Jesus as he faces his hour, “Now sentence has been passed on this world and the prince of this world is to be overthrown”. In Jesus’ own self-effacing he shows no self-pity and no bitterness. He is sad but totally confident that God’s work will be done through him, “when I am lifted from the earth I shall draw all people to myself”.
Prayer Reflection
Lord, we remember today all those who know
that the hour has come for them:
– couples about to commit themselves to each other for life;
– people, secure in their jobs, who know you are calling them
to move into some new field;
– parents who must now let go of their children;
– friends who have decided to break off a relationship
which is harmful to them;
– families facing a drop in their standard of living.
Help them to feel Jesus making the journey with them.
Remind them of his pain and how he had to tell himself
that unless the grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies
it remains only a single grain,
but if it dies it yields a rich harvest.
has taken the risk of falling on the ground and dying:
– has lost the support of the powerful and the wealthy
by embracing the cause of the poor;
– has preached ideals of chastity in societies that are permissive;
– has allowed little people to follow their own pace and to make mistakes.
And now it is yielding a rich harvest.
Lord, as we look back on our lives
we remember how we did not take the risks we should have taken
and so have remained a single grain instead of yielding a rich harvest.
Help us to live with our mistakes, to give up our regrets,
letting them fall on the ground and die,
trusting that there is another kind of harvest that we can yield.
Lord, the first priority of the wealthy nations of the world today
is to preserve their wealth.
We thank you for the prophetic voices that have been speaking out,
reminding these nations of the message of Jesus,
that if they remain turned in on their worldly possessions
they will lose them all,
whereas if they take the risk of sharing with others
they will experience peace and security for the future.
Lord, we who are in positions of authority over others
– parents, teachers, priests, community leaders –
we like to prescribe things for others,
handing on abstract teachings on right and wrong.
Remind us that we can only share our own journeys,
inviting others to follow us so that where we are, they may one day be too,
and leaving it up to you to honour them.
Lord, we think today of those whose souls are troubledas they meet their hour:
– activists facing imprisonment or even death;
– priests and religious
suddenly confronted with the implications of their vows;
– church leaders as they face up to the frustrations
of acting democratically.
We feel for them as in their confusion they ask you,
“What shall I say? Father save me from this hour.”
Give them the faith to see that it was for this very reason
that they have come to this hour,
and to invite you to glorify your name.
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Homily Notes
1. Follow the same strategy today as last Sunday and ‘go through’ the liturgy of the Easter Vigil.
This vigil is the centre of the liturgical year. The fact that it is peripheral to many normally active in the liturgy indicates how little the renewal of theology and liturgy begun in the 1960s has sunk into our consciousness. The Missal describes it as ‘the mother of all vigils’ (n 20, p. 202) and sees the readings as its core: ‘it must always be borne in mind that the reading of the word of God is the fundamental element of the Easter Vigil’ (n 21). In practice, it is almost the exact reverse. The readings get squeezed (almost squeezed out) between the opening drama of the paschal fire, and the excitement of the baptism liturgy.The assumption of the liturgy is that all nine readings are used: they are not offered as options from which to make a selection. An individual community can reduce the number’for special reasons’ (Lectionary, vol 1, p. 399) to five; and’more serious reasons’ are needed if only four are used (Missal, n 21). However, if the reason for dropping any reading is the time factor, then the question must be asked as to why bother with the vigil at all? If any of the readings are dropped, then the purpose of the whole sequence becomes invisible: the idea is that there is a long sequence of texts and that we’listen … to the word of God, recalling how he saved his people throughout history, and in the fullness of time sent his Son to be our Redeemer’ (Missal). The notion of a long sequence of steps, ‘again and again you offered covenant to us,’ cannot be conveyed with just two or three readings as that number is simply not large enough to give a sense of Gods’s continual steadfast love.
Given that people have come out especially and on this night are more closely attuned to the liturgy than usual, it is worth taking the extra time (it takes 10-15 minutes max.) to read all nine passages. Doing this well, with a variety of readers, and styles of music for the psalms, can let the vigil’s message sink home better that any homily.
Unlike Christmas Midnight Mass, after almost fifty years this vigil has failed to capture the Christian imagination. Indeed, the introduction of the Saturday vigil Mass has often meant that this night has just become an ordinary vigil Mass with ‘bits’ tacked on. The liturgy tonight uses four great signs in succession (fire, word, water, and food) to convey the message that we have been remade as a people through the resurrection.
Fire breaks out in darkness — so it useless to begin before nightfall — and becomes ‘our light our joy.’ The great candle is the beacon of the risen Christ.
‘Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God’ (Jn 3:5); we rise in Christ through being buried with him in baptism (Col 2:12) so water and baptisms are central to this night. This is the ideal time for the community to welcome new members and, in doing so, to remember that we are there because we are the baptised.Lastly, there is the Lord’s banquet. We encounter the Lord in food and we thank the Father through a food ritual. Christ our Passover has been sacrificed and, therefore, we now celebrate the feast (cf 1 Cor 5:7f) and ‘the cup of blessing which we bless is … a participation in the blood of Christ, the bread we break is … a participation in the body of Christ’ — we are made into a new people through this sharing (1 Cor 10:16f).
Giving real ritual significance — the opposite of tokenism — to the various parts of this liturgy may be the key to establishing this as ‘the night’ with all its associations, as listed in the Exultet.
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Sean Goan
Gospel notes: John 12:20-30
The gospel of John is divided into two parts and with this text we approach the end of part one, sometimes known as the Book of Signs. Chapter 12 forms a link between the end of Jesus’ public life and the beginning of his passion. The scene is Jerusalem which is full of pilgrims arriving for the feast of Passover. Many of these are Greek-speaking Jews arriving from all around the Roman empire and their request to see Jesus is a reminder that ‘seeing’ in the fourth gospel is another way of speaking of ‘believing in’. On the cross Jesus is drawing all people to himself and inviting a faith response to the love of God that he has manifested. His death is like a seed of grain falling into the ground where it perishes but out of it comes growth and a rich harvest. This is the way of love and all who would follow Jesus must walk this path. By so doing they participate in God’s ultimate victory over evil.
Reflection
Jeremiah looked forward to a day when we would all know God, ‘the least no less than the greatest’. Some six hundred years later what Jeremiah was speaking about unfolded in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. With the pilgrims in the gospel we are invited to say: ‘We wish to see Jesus’ and to recognise that in the events of Holy Week our request is granted. Now once again Jesus is revealed to us, not as a distant figure from the past who suffered for doing good, but as the living one who even now is calling us to new life. In him we are being offered nothing less than intimate friendship with God. Let us pray with Jesus, ‘aloud and in silent tears’ that we will be humble enough to accept this transforming gift.
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Lector Works:
1. Jeremiah 31, 31-34
- I hear the prophet speaking about the renewal of the covenant with God. I think it is the most tender passage in all the prophets. Four times he repeats the source and authority behind his message – Says the Lord – to indicate a solemn declaration coming directly from God. Let me speak them with equal solemnity.
- A new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will be deeper and more permanent than the one that came before: not like the covenant I made with their fathers. I shall retell the outcome of that initial relation in a kind of divine regret, something like ‘you forced my hand in those days.’
- I will place my law within them. The prophet seems to be invoking the spirit rather than the letter of the law, which is something we should be cultivating in the church. And because it is within them, no longer will they have need to teach. He means that they will pass it on like a genetic code to future generations. What a marvelous image!
- The prophet spoke these words as the people were heading into exile, uprooted and defeated. Though they had forgotten God, God had not forgotten them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. God is not restricted to the Holy Land; wherever the people go God will go before them. Let my voice do justice to these uplifting words.
- Climax: I will write my law upon their hearts.
- Message for our assembly: Our own faith today is built upon this covenant, thanks to Jesus who brought it to fulfillment.
- I will challenge myself: To read in a spirit of gratitude for the renewed invitation of God to us, remembering the psalm verse: Happy the nation whose God is the Lord.
- The writer presents a moving portrait of Christ our high priest. We will hear it again in two weeks when we commemorate the passion and death of Jesus.
- We long to pray in union with Christ but we are ashamed by our feelings. Listen to the prayers and supplications of Jesus, who with loud cries and tears prayed to be saved from death. Jesus is one with us; can we be one with him?
- I hear two words describing Christ before God, reverence and obedience.
- Climax: What it means to us. Jesus is the source of eternal salvation. According to the author, with his excruciating prayer and his life of obedience to God, Jesus has become our way to God.
- The message for our assembly: Now it is our turn. If we obey him we will discover the source of eternal salvation. Is there a better summation of what we are about during Lent than this?
- I will challenge myself: To take my time in this short passage, so that my listeners can come closer to the one who came close to us.
Gospel. John 12, 20-33
- I hear a series of sayings attributed to Jesus. Each one seems able to hold its own in isolation. They belong together because they speak of the relation of Jesus with his followers.
- The Greeks would like to see Jesus. In other words, the world awaits him now. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. The evangelist meant that God would reveal him as the Son especially at his death. Was a remote heavenly glorification – like that of Hercules – about to occur? On the contrary, we are intimate participants insofar as we follow Jesus. Doesn’t this sound like the message I just heard in Hebrews, though expressed in a different way?
- Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies… It is a saying we have heard over and over at this time of year. I emphasize the positive side: If it dies it produces much fruit. I will avoid isolating this saying by the way I read the other verses, and by so doing I will keep it in its rich context of relationships. Jesus is on the way to his death and he invites us to follow the same path to fruitfulness. In my mouth the advice is an invitation rather than a ‘hard saying.’
- Then I hear a moment of agony and supplication. Father, save me from this hour. The Greek and Latin tradition has treated this as a declaration (as it is in the Synoptics), and not as a hypothetical question as presented in the Lectionary. I will say it as a tentative declaration, more whispered than spoken, certainly not as the final word of the prayer.
- For the prayer ends with a stirring call to obedience, in the words of the great prayer he gave us: Father, glorify your name!
- What reply do we hear? The voice of God? I have glorified it and will glorify it again. An angel? Ah, for most folks it’s all just a loud clap of thunder. Well, let me split the difference and make God speak in thunderous voice.
- When I am lifted up from the earth – I will draw everyone to myself. This version in the new Lectionary is definitely an improvement. I use a pause, because I am intend to lift the timbre of my voice up to the pause, and lower it so slightly after that. The kind of death he would die, yes, which? Crucifixion, the one everyone witnessed? Or a death of exaltation by God, on which we base our faith in the church? I remember the notice in this Gospel that ‘the flesh profiteth nothing,’ and that helps me work it out for the assembly.
- Climax: Now is the time for judgment on this world. It reads like Shakespeare, doesn’t it? Let me make it sound that way. Time stood still when Jesus died, in the most important sense. The judgment still holds and will always hold. I want my now to ring as if it sounds through all the centuries until our day.
- Message for our assembly: Jesus is talking to us when he says: Those who hate their lives in this world, those who serve me, and those who will behold him lifted from the earth. Will we join him where he is?
- I will challenge myself: To not let anyone in my hearing make it through this Lent without deciding, in their heart where God has planted the law, for Jesus.
Fr. Munachi
The Greek philosopher Socrates is regarded as one of the wisest men of all time. This man who lived between 470 and 399 BC devoted his life to exposing ignorance, hypocrisy and conceit among his fellow Athenians and calling them to a radical re-examination of life. "The unexamined life," he said, "is not worth living." He challenged popular opinions regarding religion and politics as he sought to bring people to a better understanding of virtue, justice, piety and right conduct. He attracted many followers, especially among the youth. But those in power arrested him, tried him and sentenced him to death. He was charged with false teaching regarding the gods of the state, propagating revolutionary ideas and corrupting the youth of Athens. His family and friends wanted to intervene to overturn the sentence but he would not let them. He had the option to go into exile from Athens but he would not take it. Instead he accepted to drink the poison hemlock and die. Subsequent generations of Greeks came to regard Socrates as a martyr for truth. They resolved never again to persecute anyone on account of their beliefs.
By the time of Jesus the Greeks had become among the most broad-minded people in the world. Various religious and philosophical traditions flourished among them and vied for popularity. We see in today's gospel that among the huge crowds that had come to Jerusalem for the Passover feast were some Greeks. It did not take these Greeks long to see that all was not well in Jerusalem. So they came to see Jesus. Why did they come to see Jesus? Although John has somewhat spiritualised the story, thereby giving the impression that they came to seek admission into the "body" of Christ (John 12:32), it is more probable that they came to alert Jesus to the seriousness of the danger surrounding him and to suggest to him to flee with them to Greece, the land of freedom. The response that Jesus gives to their request shows that it has to do with his impending death and that he has chosen to stay and face it rather than seek a way to escape it.
Many people see death as an interruption in their life and mission. But Jesus saw death as a fulfilment of his life and mission. Many times in the past the people had planned to entrap him but Jesus always escaped from their hands because "his hour had not yet come" (John 7:30; 8:20). But now his hour has come. "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.... And what should I say -- 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour" (John 12:23, 27). Jesus uses the parable of the grain of wheat to explain that by shying away from death when the hour has come, one only reduces one's life and mission ("remains just a single grain") whereas by giving oneself up to death when the hour has come, one enhances it ("bears much fruit"). In this way Jesus flatly refuses to seek any help, human or divine, to prolong his earthly life beyond his Father's will. The voice from heaven confirms that this decision is indeed God's will and that for Jesus, the faithful servant of God, death and glory are indeed two sides of the same coin.
This must have been a powerful story of encouragement in the faith for the persecuted early Christians to whom John wrote. It shows that it is only through Jesus' submission to an undeserved death that they now have the benefit of faith and salvation. But then it goes on to remind them of the words of Jesus that his followers must follow in his steps even unto death. "Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also." (John 12:25-26). Where is Jesus? Jesus is in glory. But to get there he had to pass through the gates of death in faithfulness to God's will. That is his story. That also should be our story.
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| Father James Gilhooley |
| Socrates was sitting on a park bench. A cop asked him, "Who are you?" He answered, "I wish to God I knew." Egypt's King Tutankhamen left us his golden furniture and jewels, but he is dead. The Nazarene left us no golden toys, but He lives. The answer to this riddle is locked in this Gospel. No other Gospel contains the story of the Greek travelers. That is not surprising. John's work was written to present Christ to the Greeks and Gentiles. His Jesus was designed for export. Nor is it surprising to find Greeks in Jerusalem. The Greeks were inveterate wanderers. They had an insatiable desire to see fresh places and taste new ideas. They also had the dollars. They were yesterday's jet set. The Greek tourists were smart. The time to be in Jerusalem was Passover. Then they would get all the action and color they wanted. The Greeks may have seen some of the miracles worked by the Christ in Jerusalem. They may have witnessed Him driving the bankers out of the Temple. Surely they had heard of His triumphal entrance into Jerusalem. Is it any wonder then that they wanted to pull up chairs with our Christ? They were as inquisitive about Him as we are. Besides, they suspected such an outspoken person would not live long. They chose the apostle Philip as their messenger. They liked his Greek name. Their famous line "Sir, we should like to see Jesus!" has been echoed by billions since the Greeks spoke it. But Philip broke into a sweat at their request. Did the Master want to chat with these foreigners? They had no appointment. Timidly Philip threw the ball into Andrew's court. He set up the rendezvous immediately. He had learned long before that the Teacher had time for everybody. You need no appointment. He has no voice mail, no cell phone, no peeper. He takes all calls immediately. He is on the job 7/24/365. He's just a prayer away. Besides Jesus was delighted at the arrival of the Greeks. The Wise Men from the East at His birth carried news of Him to the countries east of Palestine. The Wise Men from the West would carry His message into the western world. Jesus shares a Greek salad (What else?) and white wine with His Greek guests at a vine covered outdoor cafe. Jerusalem is enjoying beautiful weather. There has been speculation for centuries that Jesus Himself spoke some Greek along with His native Aramaic. He proves as sophisticated as the Greeks. Originally they thought of Him as a Socrates. They found Him much more. Unlike Socrates, He knows exactly who He is. He blows their sharp minds with His surreal message. Only death brings life. To illustrate His point He uses the grain symbolism. Unless grains of wheat are buried, they will not produce wheat fields. Our Lord was teaching the Greeks and us that only by spending one's life do we retain it. We will exist long into the 21st century if we take things easily, avoid strain, and protect our lives as would a hypochondriac. We will exist longer, but unhappily we will not live. We will prove the point made by a priest that not all the dead are buried. History is filled with people who have learned the lesson Jesus was teaching the Greeks that day at brunch. GB Shaw's Joan of Arc is one. She knew her enemies were closing in. So she shouts to God, "I shall last only a year. Use me as you can." Christians who lost their lives helping Holocaust Jews are remembered today in Israel in the garden known as the Avenue of the Just. They surrendered their own lives to save others. Incidentally, the Teacher underlines His teaching that from death springs life more than once. You will find Him doing it two times in Matthew, twice in Luke, and once in Mark. He had no intention of pigeonholing this teaching. The Master picked up the check at the bistro. As He was leaving the Greeks, He threw them a fluttering knuckle ball that must have caused indigestion. "And when I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all men to myself." It was on the magnet of a wooden cross Jesus placed His hopes. History proved Him right. The empires founded on force have gone leaving bad memories - Genghis Khan, Alexander, Napoleon, Hitler, and Saddam. But, as Christ the swordless on an ass." The Christian life, the sage says, is like parachuting. We must do it right the first time. |
From THE CONNECTIONS:
The Passover is about to begin; many Jews (including some Greek Jews) have arrived in Jerusalem for the festival. Meanwhile, Jesus' conflict with the Jewish establishment has reached the crisis stage. The events of Holy Week are now in motion. Jesus obediently accepts his fate and is prepared for the outcome.
Jesus compares his “glorification” to a grain of wheat that is buried and dies to itself in order to produce new life. The sacrifice and harvest of the grain of wheat are the fate and glory of anyone who would be Jesus' disciple. The “voice” heard from the sky expresses the unity of Jesus’ purpose and God’s will.
The risk of being hurt is the price of love. That is the challenge of the grain of wheat: only by loving is love returned, only by reaching out and trying do we learn and grow, only by giving to others do we receive, only by dying do we rise to new life.
The Gospel of the grain of wheat is Christ's assurance to us of the great things we can do and the powerful miracles we can work in letting go of our prejudices, fears and ambitions in order to imitate the compassion and love of the crucified Jesus, the Servant Redeemer.
The best thing that ever happened to stack of pancakes or French toast begins as a crystal clear sap that thaws in the warmth of the long-awaited spring.
Like the grain of wheat in today’s Gospel, maple syrup is a parable as to what it means to love as God loves us. In letting our self-centeredness be boiled away, we can transform our lives in the grace and peace of God. May we possess the faith of the grain of wheat, that we may die to ourselves in order to realize the fruit of God’s harvest of justice and forgiveness; may we embrace the faith of the spring maple tree, that we may be willing to give of ourselves for the sake of others as Christ gave himself up for us, allowing ourselves to be transformed in the life and love of the Easter Christ.
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ILLUSTRATIONS:
Fr. Jude Botelho:
Today's passage from Jeremiah provides comfort to the people in the midst of his gloomy predictions. The comforting part was the fact that Yahweh was going to make a New Covenant in the new and final age of salvation. This New Covenant would be God-centred and like the Old it would involve the people of God in the response shown to God's law. But the New Covenant would also be different from the Old in many ways. It would last forever and it would not be written on stone tablets or in books but on men's hearts, as God would intervene directly. Finally all this 'newness' would be made possible because God would create 'a new heart' for his people and give them 'a new spirit.' "Deep within them I will plant my Law, writing it on their hearts. Then I will be their God and they shall be my people."
How I would love to know you!
Once there was a salt doll who lived so far inland that she had never seen the sea. Consumed with a desire to see the sea she set out one day and walked hundreds of miles towards the ocean. At last she arrived and she stood by the seashore enraptured by the wonder of what she saw she cried out, "O Sea, how I would love to know you!" To her surprise and delight the sea responded to her, "To know me you must touch me." So the little salt doll walked towards the sea and as she advanced into the oncoming tide she saw to her horror that her toes began to disappear. Then as her feet began to disappear she cried out, "O Sea, what are you doing to me?" The sea replied, "If you desire to know me fully you must be prepared to give something of yourself." As the doll advanced further into the water her limbs and then her body began to disappear and as she became totally dissolved she cried out, "Now at last, I know the sea!"
James a Feeban from 'Story Power'
In the Gospel we see Jesus speaking of his forthcoming passion and death not with fear, but with hope and promise. We are told that a small group of Greeks came to John and expressed their desire to meet Jesus. "They wanted to see Jesus". Andrew knew that no one who desired to meet Jesus would be a bother and so they approached him. Jesus begins by stating that "Now the hour has come for the son of Man to be glorified." Earlier at Cana he had said to his mother: "My hour has not yet come." But now he openly stated "that the hour had come for the son of man to be glorified." Jesus' message here is that the way to glory for Jesus and for all of us, is death to self. Jesus challenges a worldly way of living. "Anyone who loves his life will lose it; anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." Spelling out his form of discipleship he points out that it is not enough to be Jesus' fans, admiring what he has done for us, we become his followers as we try to live like him and for him. Jesus interrupts his trend of thought with the confession of his own fear. It is human to feel fear in the face of great trials and suffering. We all know how we suffer at the thought of what is going to happen to us. Courage is not the denial of fear but rather knowing enough of what is to come and yet doing what you have to do. Once we begin to love we open ourselves to pain as well as to joy. When Jesus says; "Father, glorify your name!" what Jesus is saying is "Father use me as you will!" What God did for Jesus, he will do for everybody. In times of crisis God is glorifying us, and we should be ready to say, "Use me as you will!" For Jesus the hour of being lifted up on the cross was also the hour of being lifted up in glory. All who share in being lifted up on their crosses will also be lifted up in glory in Him.
Facing One's Fear
One of his biographers tells us that Dr. Martin Luther King knew many low moments. One night, for instance, his house was bombed. This literally plunged him into the deepest pit of despair -he hit rock bottom. In a state of utter exhaustion and desperate dejection he fell down on his knees and figuratively threw himself into the arms of God. This is how he prayed: "Lord I have taken a stand for what I believe is right. But now I'm afraid. The people are looking to me for leadership. If I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. But I'm at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I can't face it any longer." In other words, that was Martin Luther King's Gethesemane. But, like Jesus, he went on to add, "I experienced the presence of God in a way like I had never experienced before. And that was the only factor that enabled me to carry on regardless of the outcome."
J. Valladares in "Your Words are Spirit and They are Life"
Unless a Grain Dies
Several years ago Catherine Marshall wrote an article called "When We Dare to Trust God". It told how she had been bed-bound for six months with a serious lung infection. No amount of medication or prayer helped. She was terribly depressed. One day someone gave her a pamphlet about a woman missionary who had contracted a strange disease. The missionary had been sick for eight years and couldn't understand why God let this tragedy happen to her. Daily she prayed for health to resume her work. But her prayers were unanswered. One day, in desperation, she cried out to God: "All right I give up. If you want me to be an invalid, that's your business." Within two weeks that missionary was fully recovered. Catherine Marshall was puzzled by that strange story. It didn't make sense. "Yet" she said, "I couldn't forget that story." Then one morning Catherine cried out to God: "God I'm tired of asking you for health. You decide if you want me sick or healthy." At that moment, Catherine said later, her health began to return. The story of that missionary woman and the story of Catherine Marshall illustrate what Jesus is talking about in today's gospel. "Unless a grain of wheat dies, it cannot bear fruit." Or to put it another way, unless we die to our own will, we cannot bear fruit for God.
Mark Link in 'Sunday Homilies'
Death to Life
In the movie The Poseidon Adventure, a ship is turned upside down by a tidal wave. Under the leadership of a priest, played by Gene Hackman, a small group of passengers make an incredible struggle for survival. Several members of this group die during this adventure, including the priest himself. However, it was his heroism that inspired the passengers who did survive to persevere. His death became the source of their escape to life. Death leading to life is one of the themes of today's gospel. Jesus says: "Unless a grain of wheat falls and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit."
Albert Cylwicki in 'His Word Resounds'
Dying for Another
The story of Maximilian Kolbe is well-known. He was a Franciscan priest in Poland, and he was in a concentration camp during the Second World War. Some prisoners had escaped and the authorities were determined that this should not happen again. For every prisoner that escaped they picked a prisoner in the group, and that prisoner was condemned to die. After one young man was picked up, someone who had a wife and young family back home, Maximilian stepped forward and offered to take his place. The soldiers were shocked at this, but they took him up on his offer, and the young man returned to the group. Maximilian died in a horrible fashion, as they were all locked in cages and left there to starve to death. All during that time he encouraged others, and inspired them with his prayers. He was canonized some years ago and the prisoner whose place Maximilian took, wept through the entire ceremony. I like to think that he understood what real love is, and that death would no longer have any fear for him.
Jack McArdle in 'And that's the Gospel truth'
The Grain of Wheat Must Die
In New Zealand there are more flightless birds than anywhere on earth. Among them are the kiwi and the penguin. Scientists tell us that these birds had wings but lost them. They had no use for them. They had no natural predators on those beautiful islands, and food was plentiful. Since there was no reason to fly they didn't. Through neglect they lost their wings. Compare them to the eaglet that somehow ended up in a chicken barnyard. The eaglet was raised with the chickens, pecking at corn, and strutting around the chicken coop. One day a mountain man, passing by, recognized the bird, now a fully grown eagle, and asked the farmer if he could work to rehabilitate it. The farmer said, "Go ahead, but it's useless. All that eagle knows is pecking corn like a chicken." The mountaineer began weeks of rigorous training with the eagle, forcing it to run after him so that it had to use its wings. Many times the eagle fell out of the limbs of trees onto its head. One day, finally, the mountaineer took the eagle to the top of a mountain and held it above his head on his wrist. Giving an upward thrust to his arm, he sent the eagle into the sky with a "Fly!" The eagle circled and wheeled upwards, straining, till it soon took off in a majestic sweep and looked directly into the sun. It was gone. It had regained its nature. It was an eagle once more.
Gerard Fuller in 'Stories for All Seasons'
The Gain in Grain
'Hope for the Flowers' is a well-known parable written by Trina Paulus. It tells of two caterpillars, Stripe and Yellow, who are crawling in a caterpillar queue (rat-race) to reach the top. They see another caterpillar hanging upside down waiting to become a butterfly, who explains: "It looks like you will die, but, you will really live. Life is changed!" Convinced, Yellow surrenders and becomes a butterfly; Stripe continues crawling. Am I ready to surrender and fly rather than crawl? To yield hundred-fold harvests rather than survive selfishly?
Francis Gonsalves in 'Sunday Seeds for Daily Deeds'
May we be ready to surrender, knowing that we are safe in His love!
************
From Fr. Tony Kadavil:
1: “I made a difference for that one.” (Adapted
and condensed from “The Star Thrower” – a story by Loren Eiseley (1907-1977),
from the book Unexpected Universe): One day, a man was walking
along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing
it into the ocean. Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?” The boy
replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is
going down. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.” “Son,” the man said,
“don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish?
You can’t make a difference!” After listening politely, the boy bent down,
picked up another starfish and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at
the man, he said, “See, I made a difference for that one.” “The
Star Thrower” is a classic story of the power within each one of us to make a
difference in the lives of others. — Today’s Gospel challenges us to make a
difference in the lives of other people by our sacrificial service to those
around us — in the family, in the workplace, and in a wider society.
Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
# 2: “Would you please occupy my room for the
night?” One stormy night many years ago, a man in his forties who had
come down with his wife from New York entered the lobby of a small hotel in
Philadelphia. Trying to get out of the rain, the couple approached the front
desk hoping to get some shelter for the night. “Could you possibly give us a
room here?” the husband asked. The manager, a friendly man with a winning
smile, looked at the couple and explained that there were three conventions in
town. “All of our rooms are taken,” the manager said. “But I can’t send a nice
couple like you out into the rain at one o’clock in the morning. Would you
perhaps be willing to sleep in my room? It’s not exactly a suite, but it will
be good enough to make you folks comfortable for the night.” When the couple
declined, the Philadelphia manager pressed on. “Don’t worry about me; I’ll make
out just fine,” the manager told them. So, the couple agreed. As he paid his
bill the next morning, the New Yorker said to the manager, “You are the kind of
manager who should be the boss of the best hotel in the United States. Maybe
someday I will build one for you.” The manager looked at them and smiled. The
three of them had a good laugh. As they drove away, the couple agreed that the
helpful manager was indeed exceptional, as finding people who are both friendly
and helpful isn’t easy. Two years passed. The Philadelphia manager had almost
forgotten the incident when he received a letter. It was from the man, who
recalled in it that stormy night and enclosed a round-trip ticket to New York
so the manager could pay them a visit. The man from New York met him at the
railroad station. He then brought him to a great new building in the city, a
palace of reddish stone, with turrets and watchtowers thrusting up to the sky.
“That,” said the New Yorker, “is the hotel I have just built for you to
manage.” “You must be joking,” the Philadelphia manager said. “I can assure you
I am not,” said the New Yorker, a sly smile playing around his mouth. The New
Yorker’s name was William Waldorf Astor, and the magnificent structure was the
original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, one of the world’s most glamorous hotels. The
Philadelphia guy who became its first manager was George C. Boldt. — Here is a
striking proof of what Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel, “If a grain of
wheat falls to the ground and dies it produces much fruit.” Young
George Boldt buried his own comfort and convenience by giving up his room. His
sacrifice sprouted and brought forth the reward of becoming the manager of the
most outstanding hotels in the world.
Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
# 3: ‘This was their finest hour’ During the plundering of Europe by the Third Reich, Winston Churchill encouraged the citizens of Great Britain with these words, “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour’.” (Speech, Hansard 18 June 1940, col. 60). Students of world history are, of course, aware of the fact that Europe was to suffer the bitterness and pain of war for the next several years but Churchill’s words concerning the “finest hour” were less about chronological time than they were about a significant moment in life, or purpose for which someone or something has been created. Churchill believed that during its most tortuous testing, England would prove itself and thereby enjoy its finest hour. At this juncture in the fourth gospel, Jesus is about to embark on his finest hour, a moment in which he would be tortuously tested, and during which, he would prove himself, his purpose, and God’s saving plan to the fullest extent. Up to this point, the Johannine Jesus had frequently stated that his hour, or the hour had not yet come (2:4; 7:30; 8:20) and that the hour was indeed coming (4:21, 23; 5:25, 28-29). At this point in his ministry and on his final Passover in Jerusalem, Jesus makes the dramatic declaration, “the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (v. 23). From this moment on, events will accelerate because the reason for Jesus’ appearance in human flesh (Heb 5:7) is about to be fully realized. Glory will indeed be one aspect of Jesus’ hour, but it will be accompanied and preceded by scarring sufferings, rejection, and abandonment, ending in death and burial. Today’s Gospel challenges us to participate in Jesus’ hour, sharing in his suffering and death as well as in the glory of his resurrection and exaltation. (Sanchez Fles). Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
1) The definition of a good sermon: It should have a
good beginning. It should have a good ending. And they should be as close
together as possible.
2) After an exceptionally long and boring sermon the
congregation filed out of the church not saying a word to the pastor. After a
while, a man shook the pastor’s hand and said, “Pastor, that sermon reminded me
of the peace and love of God!” The pastor was ecstatic. “Nobody has ever said
anything like that about one of my sermons before! Tell me, how did it remind
you of the peace and love of God?” “Well”, said the man, “it reminded me of the
peace of God because it passed all human understanding and it reminded me of
the love of God because it endured forever!”
3) Before a pastor began to preach one Sunday morning, he thought he should explain why he had a Band-Aid on his chin. “As I was shaving this morning I was thinking about today’s message when I lost my concentration and accidentally cut my chin with the razor.” He then went on to preach the longest message of his life. After the service one of the teens greeted the pastor and said, “Pastor, next week why don’t you think about your shaving and cut the sermon.”
24- Additional anecdotes:
1) “All you have to do is to add water: Years
ago, when General Mills, Inc. first began selling Betty Crocker cake mixes, the
company offered a product which only needed water. All you had to do was add
water to the mix which came in the box, and you would get a perfect, delicious
cake every time. It bombed. No one bought it and the company couldn’t
understand why, so they commissioned a study which brought back a surprising
answer. It seemed that people weren’t buying the cake mix because it was too
easy. They didn’t want to be totally excluded from the work of preparing a
cake; they wanted to feel that they were contributing something to it. So
General Mills changed the Betty Crocker formula and required the customer to
add an egg in addition to water. Immediately, the new cake mix was a huge
success. Unfortunately, many people make the same mistake when it comes to
“packaging” or presenting the Christian religion. They try to make the call of
Jesus Christ as easy as possible because they’re afraid that, if it seems too
hard, people won’t “buy” it. You hear this fear operating all the time in
popular religion, from well-known Gospel songs and best-selling books to
earnest evangelists standing on your doorstep. “All you have to do is tell
Jesus you love Him. All you have to do is accept Him as your
Lord and Savior. All you have to do is pray to Saint
Jude and put an ad in the newspaper classifieds. All
you have to do is ask for what you want in the Name of Jesus and it
will be done for you.” — Whenever you hear someone say “All you have to do is
…” in relation to Christian Faith, all you have to do is walk
away as fast as you can! You don’t want to buy a religion where you don’t even
have to break an egg, where it’s all pre-mixed for you in the box. That kind of
Faith has an immediate appeal, but it lacks the depth to sustain you over the
long haul of Christian living. Jesus did not “package” Himself in this way.
Jesus said a number of things about the blessings of Faith, and He talked about
asking in order to receive, but He never presented the overall Christian life
as being particularly easy, as we hear in today’s Gospel. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
2) Hoc feci pro te: Quid fecit pro Me? When
Count Nicholas Zinzendorf was a young man, he had an experience in an art
gallery that changed his life forever. He was born an aristocrat, had always
known wealth and luxury and was an extremely gifted individual. Zinzendorf had
been reared and trained for a diplomatic career in the Court at Dresden. Beyond
all of this, it has been said of him that he was a child of God. One day, on a
trip to Paris, he stopped for a rest in Dusseldorf; during his stay in the city,
he visited the art gallery. There he caught sight of Sternberg’s “Ecce Homo,” a
painting of the crucified Jesus. The artist had written two short lines in
Latin beneath the painting: Hoc feci pro te: Quid fecit pro Me? (“This
is what I did for you: what have you done for Me?”) As the story goes,
when his eyes met the eyes of the thorn-crowned Savior, he was filled with a
sense of shame. He could not answer that question in a manner which would
satisfy his own conscience. He stayed there for hours, looking at the painting
of the Christ on the cross until the light failed. And when the time arrived
for the gallery to be closed, he was still staring at the face of Christ,
trying in vain to find an answer to the question of what he had done for
Christ. He left the gallery at nightfall, but a new day was dawning for him.
From that day on, he devoted his heart and soul, his life and his wealth – all
that he had – to Christ, declaring, “I have but one passion; it is Jesus, Jesus
only.” The sight of the crucified One “high and lifted up” on the Tree made a
sudden and permanent change in his life, and the Resurrection bore fruit then
and there in his heart and soul. [Leslie D. Key Weatherhead, Next
Door – and Other London City Temple Sermons. (New York and Nashville:
Abingdon Press, 1960).] So it is, then, that the crucified Jesus “draws all
people to himself” as promised in today’s Gospel – because the cross
concentrates the love and mercy of God the Father into one tremendous event,
Jesus’ death and Resurrection. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
3) Sacrifices of Olympic champions: When we
watch the Olympics, what do we see but young athletes who have made enormous
sacrifices over the years? They have sacrificed a normal childhood for
countless hours of hard work and pain and solitary training, and they have done
it all just for that moment when they would stand on the winner’s platform at
the Olympic Games. If few of us are Olympians, many of us are parents, and what
is parenthood but a whole slew of sacrifices? You sacrifice all of your privacy
and a piece of your sanity. You sacrifice a neat, orderly environment in which
to live, where things stay just where you left them. You make a huge financial
sacrifice – between children and taxes, you’re lucky to have a dollar in your
pocket at the end of the day – but you do it all for the sake of something
which money can’t buy. In these and in many other ways, we are perfectly used
to the idea of losing one thing in order to gain something else. — It all makes
me wonder: if we are so willing to sacrifice and even suffer for things which
matter to us in our worldly lives, why shouldn’t we do even more for the sake
of our spiritual lives? Why should we shy away from the full meaning of what
Jesus said in today’s Gospel: “If you love your life you will lose it, but
if you hate your life in this world, you will gain it for eternal life.” Fr.
Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
4) “Can’t you please stop all that yakking and get me a
Coke?” A man is watching television. His wife is trying to engage him
in conversation:
“Dear, the plumber didn’t come to fix the leak behind the
water heater yesterday,
Husband: “Uh-huh.”
Wife: “The pipe burst today and flooded the basement.”
Husband: “Quiet. It’s third down and goal to go.”
Wife: “Some of the wiring got wet and almost electrocuted Fluffy.”
Husband: “Darn it! Touchdown.”
Wife: “The vet says he’ll be better in a week.”
Husband: “Can you get me a Coke?”
Wife: “The plumber told me that he was happy that our pipe broke because now he
can afford to go on vacation.”
Husband: “Aren’t you listening? I said I could use a Coke!”
Wife: “And Stanley, I’m leaving you. The plumber and I are flying to Acapulco
in the morning.”
Husband: “Can’t you please stop all that yakking and get me a Coke? The trouble
around here is that nobody ever listens to me.” (John C. Maxwell, Be a
People Person (USA: Victor Books, 1989).) Poor guy, nobody was
listening, not even he! — Today’s Gospel says: “Then a Voice came from Heaven,
‘I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.’” Seemingly this
was an audible Voice, a Voice which could be heard by anyone listening. But
notice this: John tells us that some in the crowd that was there and heard the
Voice coming down out of heaven dismissed it as thunder; others said an angel
had spoken to Jesus. In response to their reaction, Jesus said, “This
Voice was for your benefit, not mine . . .” That’s interesting, don’t
you think? God spoke from the Heavens, but many of the people who heard the
sound of God speaking simply dismissed it as thunder, while others thought it
was a private communication to Jesus through an angel. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
5) “They do come to you, but you do not hear them.” In
George Bernard Shaw’s play St. Joan, (St. Joan of Arc), Joan tells
of hearing God’s messages. She is talking to King Charles. Charles doesn’t
appreciate this crazy lady in armor who insists on leading armies. He’s
threatened by her. He says, “Oh, your voices, your voices, always your voices.
Why don’t the voices come to me? I am King, not you.” Joan replies, “They do
come to you, but you do not hear them. You have not sat in the field in the
evening listening for them. When the Angelus rings . . . you cross yourself and
have done with it. But, if you prayed from your heart and listened to the
trilling of the bells in the air after they stop ringing, you would hear the
voices as well as I do.” [Bruce Larson, My Creator, My Friend (Waco:
Word Books Publisher,1986).] — Joan heard the voice of God; the King, if he
heard anything at all, heard only thunder. Why? Because she was listening for
that Voice. Some people are so disconnected from God that they never hear God’s
voice as described in today’s Gospel. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
6) “Are you a philosopher?” Two men went up in a
hot-air balloon one May morning. Suddenly they were enveloped by clouds and
lost track of where they were. They drifted for what seemed like hours. Finally
the cloud parted, and they spotted a man below them on the ground. “Where are
we?” one of the passengers hollered down. The man on the ground looked around,
looked up at the balloon, looked around some more and then yelled back, “You’re
in a balloon.” The two balloonists looked at one another and then one of them
yelled down again, “Are you a philosopher?” “Yes,” the man hollered up from
below. The other balloonist said, “How did you know he was a philosopher?” His
friend replied, “No one else could give an answer so quickly that’s so logical
and yet tells you so little about where you are and where you want to be!” (“On
Being Religious”, Donald J. Shelby, May 27, 1984). — Jesus was not a
philosopher. He did deal in paradox which is a favorite tool of philosophers in
seeking truth. Yet, he had a way of using the simplest examples from daily life
to make plain the truth of his paradoxes. In today’s Gospel, Jesus uses the
paradox: “We must die if we want to live.” Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
7) “Doctors’ dilemma: The ethics of not prolonging life.” A
sign of our times appeared in recent newspaper headlines: Benjamin Weiser,
a Washington Post reporter, wrote: “For eight weeks in 1979,
Frederick Schwab, a 25-year-old medical student training in a Pennsylvania
hospital cancer ward, braced himself each time he entered the rooms of his five
dying patients. Especially Sarah’s.” Sarah was dying a slow, painful death.
“Her tiny, darkened room smelled of decay. Her pain seemed the worst. Her
cheeks were sunken. She lay motionless in her bed, staring at the ceiling,
whimpering as Schwab gingerly searched for one more vein from which to draw
blood.” Weiser says, “It wasn’t until the ninth week, Schwab recalls, that he
saw a strip of yellow tape on her door.” It had been there all along, but Schwab
had not noticed it. The nurse whom he asked about it told him that it was a “no
code” sign, and that “no code” patients were not to be saved when their hearts
stopped or their lungs failed. “A decision has been made by the patient and the
family with the physicians in advance,” she said, “that the hospital
resuscitation team, called the ‘code team,’ is not to be summoned.”1 No one had
ever told him about that. Schwab, almost by accident, learned that not all
patients choose to receive the full benefit of medical knowledge; if they
choose, those who are terminally ill may be allowed to die. That is the
patient’s, the family’s and the doctors’ dilemma: who should be kept alive and
who should be permitted to die without employing extraordinary means to keep
them alive a bit longer? Jesus faced no such dilemma as described in
today’s Gospel. The choice was his alone to make. Not Herod’s, not Caiaphas’,
not the other priests’ – it was his to determine his own fate when he was in
the very prime of life. Only by dying (there was no other way) could the
Father’s purpose for him and his life be completed. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
8) Lance Armstrong endured the pain by focusing on just
completing each day’s journey. One hero who captured the attention of
our world is cyclist Lance Armstrong. Armstrong who overcame great odds. He not
only won his battle against cancer, but one year he won one of sport’s premier
showcases of determination and endurance, the Tour de France bicycle race, for
a record seventh time. But Armstrong is not alone among determined
cyclists. Let me tell you about another man whose dedication equals that of
Lance Armstrong. In the 2003 Tour de France, American cyclist Tyler Hamilton
suffered a fractured collarbone when another cyclist slid and fell in front of
the pack, causing a crash that involved thirty-five other riders.
Collarbone injuries are notoriously painful, and they heal slowly because the
collarbone cannot be isolated and immobilized by a cast. No one expected
Hamilton to return to the race. But the following morning, Tyler Hamilton
set out on the next leg of the Tour de France. Against all predictions,
he finished the race. How tough was it? According to one report, the pain
was so great that he destroyed eleven of his teeth from gritting them so
hard. This feat of finishing with a broken collarbone was so
unprecedented that competitors demanded proof of Hamilton’s injury. His
doctors had to release his X-rays to the newspapers in order to prove that
Hamilton really had ridden this grueling race with a broken collarbone.
Hamilton explained that he endured the pain by focusing on just completing each
day’s journey. [John Eliot, Ph.D. Overachievement (New
York: Portfolio, 2004), pp. 129-130).] — Can you even imagine that?
Hurting so bad that he destroyed eleven teeth from gritting them so hard! That
reminds me of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane while sweat like great
drops of blood rolled off him. Of course, Jesus was not trying to win a bicycle
race. He was winning our souls. But we read about such determination as
Tyler Hamilton’s, and it says to us, “This is what it takes to be successful in
this world, whether you are building a career or a family or a life. Are you
willing to give your all?” Then we come to these words of our Lord found in
John’s Gospel, “The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who
hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” And deep
in our bones we realize that Jesus is talking about a way of life that doesn’t
stop at the Mediocre Inn. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
9) “Will I do?” In 1992, the Washington Redskins
won the Super Bowl with an explosive victory over the Buffalo Bills.
Seventy-five thousand people gathered on the mall between the Capitol and the
Washington Monument to cheer their team and Coach. Four days later, Chuck Colson
called the Redskins’ office to see if any football players could attend a rally
at a prison the next day. Many of the players had given their life to Christ.
Joe Gibbs the head coach answered the phone and told Colson that all the
players had left the city for a well-deserved rest. With his characteristic
humility, Joe Gibbs asked Colson, “Will I do?” Colson immediately accepted the
offer by the coach of the championship Washington Redskins. Five days after
winning the Super Bowl, Joe Gibbs could have opened any door in Washington DC
but he was willing to walk behind the locked steel doors of the penitentiary
for the District of Columbia to speak to men about his faith in Christ. Joe
Gibbs stood up to speak to the cheers, whistles and applause of 500 prisoners
five days after he had won the most prestigious event in pro sports. He told
those men: “A lot of people in the world would probably look at me and say:
‘Man, if I could just coach in the Super Bowl, I’d be happy and fulfilled….’
But I’m here to tell you, it takes something else in your life besides money,
position, football, power, and fame. The vacuum in each of our lives can only
be filled through a personal relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Otherwise, I’m telling you, we’ll spend the rest of our lives in a
meaningless existence. I’ve seen it in football players’ eyes, and I’ve seen it
in men who are on their deathbed. There’s nothing else that will fill the
vacuum.” [Chuck Colson, The Body, (Dallas TX: Word, 1992), 377.]
Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
10) “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound!” One
man who learned what there is to lose and gain was an eighteenth-century slave
trader named John Newton. Captain of a trans-Atlantic slaving ship, he had
everything this world can offer as he made a lucrative living from the brutal
business of buying and selling human cargo. Eventually, he was confronted with
Jesus Christ, and he was converted to the Gospel truth which makes us free (John
8:32). He spent the rest of his life crusading to abolish the very business
which had proven so enriching. He also wrote a number of great hymns, including
a familiar one which goes:
“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound!/That saved a wretch like me./I once was
lost, but now I’m found,/Was blind, but now I see.” — Once, John Newton thought
that he was on top of the world, but in truth, he was wretched and blind. He
lacked the moral clarity to see that he was nothing more than a cynical
businessman making money in an evil enterprise; he was allowing the agnostic’s
law of supply and demand to separate him from his Christian conscience. Then
Jesus came along and the old John Newton died. A new John Newton was born. An
old life was lost and a new one was found, a new life whose melodic fruit
remains with us to this day. What about yourself? What have you got to lose?
You’ve got to die to yourself in order to live with Christ! You’ve got to
sacrifice and give up to gain! So what about it? What have you got to lose?
What about selfishness? Shouldn’t we lose that narrow-minded little love which
only extends to family and friends—or stops with our own selves? Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
11) Peace on earth for sale at Jesus’ shop: There
was once a woman who wanted peace in the world and peace in her heart. But she
was very frustrated– the world seemed to be falling apart. She would read
the papers and get depressed. One day she decided to go shopping, and
picked a store at random. She walked into the store and was surprised to
see Jesus behind the counter. She knew it was Jesus, because he looked
just like the pictures she’d seen on holy cards and in devotional
paintings. At last she got up her nerve and asked, “Excuse me, are
you Jesus?” “I am.” “Do you work here?” “No,” Jesus said, “I own the store.”
“What do you sell?” “Oh, just about anything! Feel free to walk up
and down the aisles, make a list of things you want, and when you come back and
I will see what I can do for you.” The lady walked up and down the aisles
and saw all sorts of things she wanted: peace on earth, no more war, no
hunger or poverty, peace in families, no more drugs, clean air, and careful use
of resources. She made a list of the things she wanted. By the
time she got back to the counter, Jesus read through the list,
looked at her and smiled. “No problem,” he
said. Then he bent down behind the counter and picked up a
number of small packets. “What are these?” she asked. “Seed packets,”
Jesus replied. “This is a catalogue store.” In surprise, she
said: “You mean I don’t get the finished product?” “No,” he
answered. “This is a place of dreams. When you choose
what you want, I give you the seeds. You plant the seeds and watch them grow. There
is one catch, however: you will not receive the benefit of
your good work — others will.” “Oh,” she said with disappointment.
“Then I’m not interested.” And she left the store without buying
anything. — Today’s Gospel instructs us to bury ourselves in the soil of life
by selflessly and sacrificially spending our lives for the temporal and
spiritual welfare of others just as Jesus did. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
12) “How could you pick up the sound of a cricket in all
this noise?” There is a time-honored story about an old farmer who was
persuaded by his nephew to visit the big city. The young man proudly took the
farmer on a tour of the large metropolis. At one point as they walked down the
street the old man suddenly stopped and asked, “Did you hear that?” The young
man looked at the milling pedestrians and the traffic and replied, “Hear what?”
“A cricket,” the old man said as he walked toward a little tuft of grass
growing out of a crack next to a tall building. Sure enough, there tucked in
the crack was a cricket. The young man was amazed. “How could you pick up the
sound of a cricket in all this noise?” he asked. The old farmer didn’t say a
word and just reached into his pocket, pulled out a couple of coins and dropped
them on the sidewalk. Immediately a number of people began to reach for their
pockets or look down at the sidewalk. The old man observed, “We hear what our
ears are trained to hear.” — Psychologist Ellen Langer says that many people
are so preoccupied with their daily tasks that they rarely listen to those
around them. Today’s Gospel presents a few Greek visitors who came to the
Apostles, eager to meet and listen to Jesus. Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
13) “The Four Immortal Chaplains:” Just after
midnight on Feb. 3, 1943, an act of extraordinary unselfishness by a group of
men became a legend of martyrdom and sacrifice. When the Army ship Dorchester
was torpedoed by the Germans just south of Greenland that night, its passengers
and crew had 25 minutes to get off the boat. As 902 people went for the life
jackets, it quickly was discovered there weren’t near enough. Of the 13
lifeboats, only two functioned. In the ship’s final minutes, Methodist senior
chaplain George Lansing Fox, Rabbi Alexander Goode, Dutch Reformed minister
Clark V. Poling and John P. Washington, a Roman Catholic priest, were helping
passengers leave the vessel. Then four men appeared all of them without life
jackets. The chaplains quickly gave up their own vests and went down with the
ship, perishing in the freezing water. Survivors saw them, locked arm in arm,
praying and singing the Navy hymn, “Eternal Father, Strong to Save” just before
the ship dove beneath the waves.
“The Four Immortal Chaplains,” as they are now known, have
been honored many times, including on a stamp issued in their honor by the U.S.
Postal Service. This world would have lost much if there had not been men
prepared to forget their personal safety, security, selfish gain and selfish
advancement. The world owes everything to people who recklessly spent their
lives for others. (Fr. Bobby Jose). Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
14) How I would love to know you! Once there was
a salt doll who lived so far inland that she had never seen the sea. Consumed
with a desire to see the sea she set out one day and walked hundreds of miles
towards the ocean. At last she arrived and she stood by the seashore enraptured
by the wonder of what she saw she cried out, “O Sea, how I would love to know
you!” To her surprise and delight the sea responded to her, “To know me you
must touch me.” So the little salt doll walked towards the sea and as she
advanced into the oncoming tide she saw to her horror that her toes began to
disappear. Then as her feet began to disappear she cried out, “O Sea, what are
you doing to me?” The sea replied, “If you desire to know me fully you must be
prepared to give something of yourself.” As the doll advanced further into the
water her limbs and then her body began to disappear and as she became totally
dissolved she cried out, “Now at last, I know the sea!”
(James a Feeban from Story Power; quoted by Fr. Botelho). Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
15) Facing One’s Fear: One of his
biographers tells us that Dr. Martin Luther King knew many low moments. One
night, for instance, his house was bombed. This literally plunged him into the
deepest pit of despair -he hit rock bottom. In a state of utter exhaustion and
desperate dejection he fell down on his knees and figuratively threw himself
into the arms of God. This is how he prayed: “Lord I have taken a stand for
what I believe is right. But now I’m afraid. The people are looking to me for
leadership. If I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will
falter. But I’m at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I can’t face it
any longer.” In other words, that was Martin Luther King’s Gethsemane. But,
like Jesus, he went on to add, “I experienced the presence of God in a way like
I had never experienced before. And that was the only factor that enabled me to
carry on regardless of the outcome.” (J. Valladares in Your Words are Spirit
and They are Life; quoted by Fr. Botelho). Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
16) Unless a Grain Dies: Several years ago
Catherine Marshall wrote an article called “When We Dare to Trust God”. She
told how she had been bed-bound for six months with a serious lung infection.
No amount of medication or prayer helped. She was terribly depressed. One day
someone gave her a pamphlet about a woman missionary who had contracted a
strange disease. The missionary had been sick for eight years and couldn’t
understand why God let this tragedy happen to her. Daily she prayed for health
to resume her work. But her prayers were unanswered. One day, in desperation,
she cried out to God: “All right I give up. If You want me to be an invalid,
that’s Your business!” Within two weeks that missionary was fully recovered.
Catherine Marshall was puzzled by that strange story. It didn’t make sense.
“Yet” she said, “I couldn’t forget that story.” Then one morning Catherine
cried out to God: “God I’m tired of asking you for health. You decide if You
want me sick or healthy.” At that moment, Catherine said later, her health
began to return. — The story of that missionary woman and the story of
Catherine Marshall illustrate what Jesus is talking about in today’s
Gospel. “Unless a grain of wheat dies, it cannot bear fruit.” Or
to put it another way, unless we die to our own will, we cannot bear fruit for
God. (Mark Link in Sunday Homilies; quoted by Fr. Botelho).
17) Death to Life: In the movie, The
Poseidon Adventure, a ship is turned upside down by a tidal wave.
Under the leadership of a priest, played by Gene Hackman, a small group of
passengers make an incredible struggle for survival. Several members of this group
die during this adventure, including the priest himself. However, it was his
heroism that inspired the passengers who did survive to persevere. His death
became the source of their escape to life. — Death leading to life is one of
the themes of today’s Gospel. Jesus says: “Unless a grain of wheat
falls and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces
much fruit.” (Albert Cylwicki in His Word Resounds; quoted by Fr. Botelho).
Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
18) Dying for Another: The story of St.
Maximilian Kolbe is well-known. He was a Conventual Franciscan priest in
Poland, and he was in Aus concentration camp during the Second World War. Three
prisoners had escaped, and the authorities were determined that this should not
happen again. For every prisoner that escaped they picked ten prisoners at
random from the group, and those prisoners was condemned to die of starvation
in isolation After one young man was picked, someone who had a wife and young
family back home, Maximilian stepped forward and offered to take his place. The
soldiers were shocked at this, but they took him up on his offer, and the young
man returned to the group. Maximilian died in a horrible fashion, as they were
all locked in and underground bunker and left there to starve to death. All
during that time he encouraged others, and inspired them with his prayers.
After two weeks, Father Maximillian and several others of the ten were still
alive; the others had died of starvation and dehydration. The authorities,
wishing to empty the bunker, executed Kolbe and the others by lethal injection.
Father Maximillian was beatified by Pope St. Paul VI in 1971 and canonized as a
martyr by Pope St. John Paul II in 1982, and the prisoner whose place
Maximilian had taken, wept through the entire ceremony. [Citation: Pettinger,
Tejvan. “Biography of Maximilian Kolbe”, Oxford, UK – www.biographyonline.net.
3rd AuguSaint 2014. Updated 2 March 2019.] I like to think that he
understood what real love is, and that death would no longer have any fear for
him. (Jack McArdle in And that’s the Gospel Truth; quoted by
(Fr. Botelho). Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
19) The Grain of Wheat Must Die: In New
Zealand there are more flightless birds than anywhere on earth. Among them are
the kiwi and the penguin. Scientists tell us that these birds had wings but
lost them. They had no use for them. They had no natural predators on those
beautiful islands, and food was plentiful. Since there was no reason to fly
they didn’t. Through neglect they lost their wings. Compare them to the eaglet
that somehow ended up in a chicken barnyard. The eaglet was raised with the
chickens, pecking at corn, and strutting around the chicken coop. One day a
mountain man, passing by, recognized the bird, now a fully grown eagle, and
asked the farmer if he could work to rehabilitate it. The farmer said, “Go
ahead, but it’s useless. All that eagle knows is pecking corn like a chicken.”
The mountaineer began weeks of rigorous training with the eagle, forcing it to
run after him so that it had to use its wings. Many times the eagle fell out of
the limbs of trees onto its head. One day, finally, the mountaineer took the
eagle to the top of a mountain and held it above his head on his wrist. Giving
an upward thrust to his arm, he sent the eagle into the sky with a “Fly!” The
eagle circled and wheeled upwards, straining, till it soon took off in a
majestic sweep and looked directly into the sun. It was gone. It had regained its
nature. It was an eagle once more. (Gerard Fuller in Stories for All Seasons;
quoted by
Fr. Botelho). Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
20) The Gain in Grain: “Hope for the Flowers” is
a well-known parable written by Trina Paulus. It tells of two caterpillars,
Stripe and Yellow, who are crawling in a caterpillar queue (rat-race) to reach
the top. They see another caterpillar hanging upside down waiting to become a
butterfly, who explains: “It looks like you will die, but, you will really
live. Life is changed!” Convinced, Yellow surrenders and becomes a butterfly;
Stripe continues crawling. Am I ready to surrender and fly rather than crawl? —
To yield hundred-fold harvests rather than survive selfishly? (Francis
Gonsalves in Sunday Seeds for Daily Deeds; quoted by Fr. Botelho).
Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
21) “Sugaring season:” In many parts of the
northeastern United States and southeastern Canada, this is “sugaring season.”
For six weeks, usually from late February through mid-April, maple trees are
“tapped” for their sap. During the annual “sap run,” the frozen sap in the
maple tree thaws and begins to move and build up pressure within the tree. When
the internal pressure reaches a certain point, sap will flow from any fresh
wound in the tree. Farmers and producers collect the crystal-clear sap, then
boil it down in an evaporator over a blazing hot fire. Nothing is added — only
water is removed. The sap becomes more concentrated until it becomes maple
syrup. The best thing that ever happened to stack of pancakes or French toast
begins as a crystal-clear sap that thaws in the warmth of the long-awaited
Spring. — Like the grain of wheat in today’s Gospel, maple syrup is a parable
as to what it means to love God as God loves us. In letting our
self-centeredness be boiled away, we can allow our lives to be filled with the
grace and peace of God. May we possess the Faith of the grain of wheat, that we
may die to ourselves in order to realize the fruit of God’s harvest of justice
and forgiveness; may we embrace the Faith of the spring maple tree, that we may
be willing to give of ourselves for the sake of others as Christ gave himself
up for us, allowing ourselves to be transformed in the life and love of the
Easter Christ. (Quoted by Fr. Kayala).
Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
22) Written in their hearts: God chose the
Israelites as His special people and revealed Himself and His law to them. Out
of Israel came His divine Son, who revealed God even more fully, and gave us
the law of love. But throughout human history there have been many wise men of
every nation who have known neither the Old Testament nor the New, yet have
taught many of the same truths. Take Confucius, the Chinese
moralist who lived in 552-479 BC, and is still revered by the Chinese as a
master counselor. A man of high intelligence and compassion, Confucius tried to
reform society in China by teaching practical wisdom to a small group of men
who were destined to hold high public office. Here are some of the ideas he
passed on to them. “God is the creator of all men.” “There is the great God;
does He hate anyone?” “The superior man exalts others and abases himself; he
gives the first place to others and takes the last himself.” “The practice of
right living is deemed the highest . . . complete virtue takes first place.”
“Do not commence or abandon anything hastily.” “While his parents are alive, a
son should not consider his wealth his own nor hold it for his use only.” “What
you do not want done to yourself, do not do unto others.” “The body and the
animal soul go downwards and the intelligent spirit is on high.” These were
wise sayings, indeed, and Confucius had many admiring pupils who carried on his
work as a teacher. One of them, Mencius, who lived in the third
century BC, was the author of one axiom that was particularly discerning: “The
great man is he who does not lose his child’s heart.” Try matching some of
these statements with comparable passages in the Bible. — Of course, not all
that the Confucianists or the other thoughtful pagan philosophers said would
blend with Divine public revelation. But their efforts to teach goodness shows that
God was calling them to Himself through the light of human reason, and they
were listening. “… I will place My law within them, and write it upon
their hearts.” (Jer, 31:33).Today’s first reading). -Father Robert F.
McNamara.
Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
23) “Self” on the cross and in Hollywood: The
Academy awards were hosted on TV, and those who watched were treated to the
same annual “display.” Was the inner motive of the participants an anticipation
of “awards for achievement,” or was it an annual disease of human striving for
glory and attention through opulence and skimpy attire? Hero-worship or
heroine-worship seems to be rampant, and God seems to be totally absent in a
way that only Hollywood could bring about. “SELF” dominates the entire scene. —
We need to remember that we are approaching the end of the Lenten season, and
that means that we are being led to the Cross. There is no room for “Self” at
the Cross, only self-emptying. Jesus’ message is clear: if you want “to produce
fruit” you must first “die to self.” It is only when the grain of wheat “dies”
that it is transformed into an explosion of fruitfulness. This is what happened
to Jesus; he freely accepted death on the Cross, fulfilling the will of his
heavenly Father. And it is the Father that receives the glory, not the
Hollywood heroes; glory belongs to God alone, not false idols. Discipleship
demands this same self-emptying of pride and ostentation. It demands a choice
either for or against Jesus. The call to “lose our life” is a call to
conversion, to change from our present ways that keep us from full
discipleship. We all hide behind a “shell” – our Hollywood veneer, so to speak
– and it is that shell of false reality that must be cracked and surrendered to
Jesus. (Bishop Clarke). Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
24) “I fear they may be impressed by your scars and thereby be convinced to turn to your religion!” When the American Baptist missionary Adoniram Judson (1788-1850 C.E.) went to Burma to preach the good news, he encountered untold hardships. During his seven-year mission, he suffered hunger and privation; for seventeen months he was held in Ava Prison and was subjected to incredible abuse and torture. As a result, his body was scarred for life from the beatings and by the iron shackles and chains he was forced to wear. Throughout many sufferings he remained undeterred in his resolve. When he was finally released from prison, he asked the civil authorities for permission to resume his work for the sake of the Gospel. With indignation, the man in charge denied Judson’s request, saying, “My people are not foolish enough to listen to anything you say but I fear they may be impressed by your scars and thereby be convinced to turn to your religion!” — As the days of Lent ebb away, believers are led nearer and nearer to the culmination of this holy season. The Church, through the liturgical readings, has kept us alert to what Jesus is saying to humankind. At this point, the gathered community is also invited to be once again impressed by the scars of Jesus and, thereby, to be more deeply convinced of the saving, merciful love of God for all people. Both the second reading from Hebrews and the Johannine gospel focus attention on the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross as the means by which salvation has been effected. (Sanchez Files). Fr. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/).
From Sermons.com
It bombed. No one bought it and the company couldn't understand why, so they commissioned a study which brought back a surprising answer. It seemed that people weren't buying the cake mix because it was too easy. They didn't want to be totally excluded from the work of preparing a cake; they wanted to feel that they were contributing something to it. So, Betty Crocker changed the formula and required the customer to add an egg in addition to water. Immediately, the new cake mix was a huge success. Unfortunately, many people make the same mistake when it comes to "packaging" or presenting the Christian religion. They try to make the call of Jesus Christ as easy as possible because they're afraid people won't "buy it" if it seems too hard.
Jesus said, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies it bears much fruit. Jesus then explained what he meant. He said, "The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it." It's true in life isn't it? If we are going to get anything out of it we have to invest ourselves in it. Do you remember the second to last album by the Beatles? It was called "Abbey Road" and for my money it was their best. The last song is a little musical reprise called "The End." It's the last lyrical statement the Beatles make on the album. And it went, "And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make."
1. First, when a grain of wheat falls it dies.
3. Finally, Christ is the grain of wheat that dies and bears much fruit.
A few years ago, just before Thanksgiving, Tom Lind, a salesman from Montana, was making his rounds, traveling his regular route along the southern Oregon coast. As usual he was in his older model pickup, piggybacked with his small camper. Looking to continue his route south and east, Lind made a fateful spur-of-the-moment decision. He opted to take the scenic route. Only a few miles on this blue highway, however, the elevation rose rapidly and good ol' Oregon drizzle transformed into swirling snowflakes. Tom was in his big pickup, so he kept going. But the snow kept coming. Soon Tom found himself in the middle of a blizzard whiteout.
Forced to pull over, Tom stopped for the rest of the day. By nightfall his pickup was a slightly discernible lump of white in a vast landscape of snow. Still Tom wasn't terribly worried. He was in his big pickup Soon the road-clearing crews would be along and would help him escape the cold clutches that held him and his truck captive.
What Tom didn't realize was that the scenic route he had chosen was closed after the first winter snowfalls. The Forest Service didn't maintain that road in any way. They would not be coming up that way until spring thaw.
But Tom didn't know that. Convinced that someone would be along as soon as there was a break in the weather, Tom determined to do the smart thing: stay in his big truck. Avoid the risks of exposure or getting hopelessly lost in a snow drift by hunkering down in his big truck.
As soon as he failed to arrive at his next sales appointment, family and friends, state and local police forces began searching for Tom. No one thought to venture up the little used, completely snow-blocked back track Tom had chosen. When the weather cleared and blue skies and sun shone down on Tom's trapped vehicle, the salesman opted to continue being smart and safe: he stayed with his big truck.
It seems impossible to understand now, but Tom stayed with that big truck for over eight weeks. He kept a journal of his thoughts, his hopes, his fears, his considered options. But still he sat in that big truck. Eventually he grew too weak to have any real options anymore. By Christmas he couldn't have walked out if he had wanted.
At the end of January a group of back-country skiers inadvertently came across Tom and his safe haven big pickup truck. Tom's journal revealed he had finally died sometime around January 15. His emaciated, dehydrated body was still in his truck. In trying to minimize his risks, Tom thought he was opting to stay safe. It turned out Tom was opting out of life.
Life is risky business. Right now we may be focused on those who are standing at risk as members of the armed forces. But the truth of creation is that all of us stand in harm's way every day of our lives.
We may no longer think of ourselves as part of the food chain. But the truth is the mere fact we're breathing puts us on the list to someday NOT be breathing.
Like Tom and his big pickup truck, we may believe that seat belts, FDA regulations, security alerts, and smoke detectors can keep us safe. But the truth is we're fragile, fallible, fractured creatures whose lives are always hanging in the balance. Every one of us is only one breath away from eternity. Five seconds is all that separates us from forever.
Getting stuck on a snowy road is an experience with which all of us can identify. So too is the example Jesus gave his listeners of the wheat grain. Just as we're (almost) all drivers, so was Jesus' audience almost all farmers. The weaknesses and fallibilities of a car-the weaknesses and fallibilities of a crop-these are common, personal, everyday information. The organic nature of the wheat grain led to Jesus' natural rendition of the conclusion: the grain of wheat would either submit itself to death--falling into the fertile ground voluntarily--or would experience dying on the vine. When the wheat grain falls into that fertile ground, it is then, and only then, assured of a new starting point in life...
The Planted Seed
It's amazing that tiny seeds can transform the landscape around our home from bare ground to beautiful flower beds. Botanically, we know quite a bit about seeds and how they germinate. We know that a seed consists of a protective seed coat, some kind of storage tissue with nutrient reserves, and a dormant plant embryo. We further know that under the correct conditions the dormant embryo can be "awakened" to germinate and grow into a mature plant. Some Botanists say that in every seed there is an on/off switch that will let the seed grow.
So at some point the seed is turned "on" and it begins to sprout. In time, what was once a seed is transformed into a flower, fruit or grain. Jesus used the illustration of wheat being buried in the ground. For Jesus, planting seeds is what it means to be faithful.
Keith Wagner, Planting Seeds
That's an apt description of many of us. We save our religion for a rainy day. We go about unplugged and wonder why our lives are so devoid of power. How sad. Christian faith is not something to be plugged in when it is convenient or when it is necessary. The Christian life is lived daily. There is a cost involved.
King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com
_________________________________________
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.
