Fifth Sunday of Lent

When some Greek-speaking Jews in today’s gospel, present in Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover, asked to see Jesus it was a sign to him that his hour had finally come. Whenever Christ made mention of his hour in John’s gospel he was referring to the hour of his death on the cross and resurrection from the tomb. The Evangelist himself refers to the whole sequence of events we know as the passion, death and resurrection, as Christ’s hour of glorification. In accordance with John’s theological vision, the cross was the passage or “Passover” to glory. So for the request of the Greeks to be met, for Jesus to be acknowledged by a wider world symbolised by the Greeks, he had first to be glorified.

In a profound and deeply-felt interpretation of his approaching death on the cross, the Lord Jesus draws a parallel from nature. For a grain of wheat to mature and eventually reach harvest it must first lie in the earth and apparently die, before mysteriously re-awaking to life and harvest after winter. For the harvest of the Gentile world to take place, for the nations to be gathered into the Church of God, He must also die and be consigned to the earth. The splendour and power of his risen glorious body would then be life-giving for all nations.

Our familiarity with those great saving events of our Saviour’s life must not minimise the cost to him personally. Betrayal, humiliation, suffering and crucifixion were the cup he had to drink. In his passion he exemplified what he preached: if we really want to discover true life then we must first die to ourselves. Christ’s cry to his Father in our gospel reading to be saved from this hour show just how troubled within himself he was. Yet his Father’s will had to remain the supreme rule of his life. The short passage from the letter to the Hebrews sheds further light on the inner turmoil and distress which afflicted Christ as his passion and death drew near.

The prophet Jeremiah speaks of a new and final covenant which God one day would enter into with his people. The mediator of that covenant would be none other than God’s own Son, and he would seal it by the sacrifice of himself on the cross. We belong to the people of that new covenant, privileged and blessed to share in the Church’s sacred and life-giving mysteries bequeathed to her by the Saviour. As we enter the season of Passiontide let us recall with reverence and gratitude the infinite sacrificial love of the Saviour which made our redemption possible.

(from the Diocesan website)

+Michael Campbell OSA
Coadjutor Bishop of Lancaster