Saturday, March 21, 2015

5th Sunday of Lent, Year B, 22.03.2015

 Jeremiah 31:31-34 / Hebrews 5:7-9 / John 12:20-33

Whenever we come across this phrase “life-threatening situation” what would we think it would be?

It would certainly be one that would cause bodily harm or that our life is in danger from an external hostile and aggressive force.

One typical example would be that when we are walking alone in a dark alley and a robber jumps out and points a knife at us and growls with that typical line: Your money or your life!

In a situation like this we will have to make a snap decision as to whether it is our money or our life. We won’t have time to say – Let me think about it …

Or if the robber were to say – Give me all your money or I will cut off both your ears, we are certainly not going to bargain by saying “Does it have to be both?”

Whatever it is, let us pray that we won’t have to undergo such a traumatic experience of a life-threatening situation.

It is certainly not a joke when life is being threatened with a mortal danger.

We may not know when we are going to die but if death were to jump at us like a robber and stare at us in the face, then we have to make snap decisions.

It is then that we will realize how precious life is.

Today’s gospel passage begins with some Greeks approaching Philip with the request that they would like to see Jesus.

Probably those Greeks have heard about the great things that Jesus was doing and so they want to see who He is.

And so Philip and Andrew went to tell Jesus about this request.

And from there on we got a bit lost. Because Jesus didn’t give an answer to the request. He didn’t say yes or no, or that He was busy or that He will see them later.

He practically went on a monologue that begins with “Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified”.

If we were those two disciples, we would have reacted as they might have, with that “Huh?” kind of look. Just what are they going to tell those Greeks.

If those two disciples were confused by what Jesus said, then we have the advantage of context and perspective.

Because by now we should understand that Jesus was facing a life-threatening situation. 

His hour has come and He says that His soul is troubled. It is the agony in the garden told in a different way.

He was like talking to Himself and asking Himself if He should ask the Father to save Him from this hour. 

And He answered His own question – But it was for this very reason that I have come to this hour.

So by now we should understand what Jesus meant by saying that unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain. 

By now we should understand what Jesus meant when He said that anyone who loves his life loses it and anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for the eternal life.

For Jesus, His life was precious to Him. And as He sees death approaching, His soul is troubled. He is distressed by it.

But as He teaches us to die to ourselves, then He too must show us how to do it.

Jesus indicated the kind of death he would undergo when He said – And when I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all men to myself.

Indeed by dying on the cross, Jesus showed us the meaning of life.
A wise man was asked this question – What is the greatest difficulty in life? 

His answer is this – To have no burden to carry.

It may sound rather intriguing, but not to have any burdens in life to carry is like saying that life has no meaning to live for.

Over the past week, we would be anxious, or at least concerned over the medical condition of a politician.

Known as the founding father of the nation, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew’s medical condition had deteriorated and many Singaporeans had expressed their well-wishes and prayers for him.

There is a line that he wrote in his book “Hard Truth”: I have spent my life, so much of it, building up this country. At the end of the day, what have I got? A successful Singapore. What have I given up? My life.

A Singaporean posted this reflection – “My late father raised me. My Church fathers guide me. The founding father had given me a nation to call home.
The first gave me life. The second teach me to live. The third, he gave me a living.”

The point is clear. When we give up our lives for others, when we carry their burdens, and offer our lives as a sacrifice for others, then we are indeed following Jesus who came to serve and not to be served.

The life-threatening danger is that we choose otherwise – we want to be served and not to serve.

To have no burdens to carry is indeed the greatest life-threatening danger.

There is no need to think about it. If we truly believe in Jesus, then we will do like He did. 

We will offer our lives for the salvation of others, as well as for our own salvation.