Sheamus O’Toole was driving down the street in
a sweat because he had an important meeting and couldn't find a parking
place. Looking up to heaven he said, "Lord
take pity on me. If you find me a
parking place, I will go to Mass every Sunday for the rest of my life &
give up drinking Irish Whiskey!"
Miraculously, a parking place appeared. Sheamus looked up again and said, "Never
mind Lord, I've just found myself."
Jeremiah announces that a New Covenant is
coming, when the God will place His law upon our hearts, and we shall be God’s
people. We prayed in our Responsorial
Psalm “Create a clean a pure heart in a willing spirit.”
Then, in the Letter to the Hebrews we heard
that Jesus is “… the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” And in our Gospel a rather odd incident
is recounted. “Some Greeks … came to
Philip … and asked him, ‘Sir, we would like to see Jesus.’” For the Greeks [at that time] the request
to see Jesus meant to believe in Jesus.
Jesus responds to their request in a peculiar
way, “… unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains
just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.”
Jesus doesn’t promise an easy life for his
disciples rather He promises a life based on loving God which will leads to
eternal life. He offers us a life
focused on doing God’s Will, by bringing Christ’s mercy & compassion to the
world. By dying to our prejudices, our fears
& our wants we can “Live Jesus.”
When we pray the Hail Mary we say“… pray
for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.” As we move
through our life, we discover that there are many “hours” of death; we “die”
many times as we grow and mature. There’s
the death of childhood, when we put aside our innocence to deal with “real
life,” we come to understand that our needs & our wants are not the center
of the universe, from the “death” of
childhood comes the “birth” of adulthood.
There’s the death of
dreams, when we accept the reality that we will never play in the NBA, on the
PGA Tour, for the Phillies or the Yankees.
We will never Sing on Broadway or in Carnegie Hall. We put aside those “dreams” and accept who we
are, the talents we are blessed with. We
accept our life, with its meaning and purpose as gift from God. We learn that work, sacrifice, perhaps most important
of all — forgiveness, are essential in every meaningful relationship. Every life is a series of death & birth, of change and discovery, of joy and sadness.
With the image of the “grain
of wheat” Jesus teaches us that life demands “dying” to our fears and our self-centeredness. True life means to choose to love Jesus, love
ourselves, and love others. The Gospel “harvest”
prepares us for eternal life with the Lord.
[Adopted from Connections, March 17, 2024]
C.S. Lewis said the Lord challenges us to “irrigate
desserts.” [The Abolition Man, p.14]. Lent
reminds us to “irrigate desserts” in this life with Pray, Almsgiving and Fasting. To strengthen our Faith with the Sacraments,
especially Penance and the Eucharist. Receiving
The Eucharist, enables us to give our lives to the Lord in reverence, in
obedience and in awe confident that He will bless us & pour our His Grace
upon us.
Jesus is the Bread of Life, the Author of
Life, and the Conduit to Eternal Life. The
New Covenant is written on our souls at our Baptism, upon our hearts, invisible
but essential to our lives. For a few
minutes, in silence, reflect on your gift of Faith and what you doing this Lent
strengthen your Faith?
May God Be Praised.
Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031724-YearB.cfm
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