Embracing suffering and death, towards life
March 21, 2021: 5th Sunday in Lent
Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrew 5: 7-9; John 12: 20-23
The talk of the pandemic has filled the air all around us for more than a year now! The talks of cases and deaths, lockdowns and curfews, have only graduated to the next level adding to itself newer terms such as variants and vaccines; there doesnt seem to appear a definitive solution! In such a context, it is highly probable that a person or we as a society, give up hope! There are other equally unfortunate possibilities too - that we drink in the consipiracy theories and spread their negative vibes far and wide, or we grow terrified with the developments and close in, giving rise to depression and delusion! Yet again this year, the Paschal celebrations run the risk of being hampered by the restrictive measures of the governmental organisations... are we in an eschatological era? In this light, the Word this Sunday seems to drive home a very strong and difficult lesson to our Christian hearts and communities.
First lesson is to learn to embrace suffering.
It is easy, practical, human and highly justified to entreat the Lord with saying - take these sufferings away from us! Jesus poses that pointed question: is that what we need to do? Is it not to suffer that the Son of Man came on earth - a suffering that he embraced in loving obedience to the Lord, says the second reading. The mind of Christ consists in seeing beyond the suffering, the pain and the misery, and noticing the hand of God accompanying us and guiding us. In suffering and pain, we begin to understand the real implication of the concrete choices we make in our daily lives. For instant joys and passing pleasures we choose whatever does not give us a problem or a difficulty or a suffering. Avoidance of suffering has come to be considered almost an absolute goal in life! But is it so? Jesus says, no!
It is in the 'obedience through suffering' that Jesus brought his identity and mission to their fulfilment! He invites us, rather challenges us to the same obedience through suffering. To embrace sufferings of the daily life, and the hardships of a Christian life, is an essential faith lesson that we have to learn as early as possible in life. The more we learn this lesson, the more livable our life becomes! If not, our life remains marred by questions, complaints and murmurings. As true disciples of the Suffering Servant of God we are called to embrace suffering, on our way!
Second lesson is to dare to embrace death.
Death rather than sin - that is what we are given to remember when we reflect on the people of whom the Lord refers to, in the words of Jeremiah. That motto of the teenage saint, Dominc Savio, reflects the covenantal life style that we are called to live. I treasure the covenant that I have made with my Lord to the extent that I prefer to embrace death, but not break the covenant that unites me to my Lord - is that our attitude? That is true Christian attitude, the real mind of Christ. "The people broke the covenant," complains the Lord, through Jeremiah, reminding us of our mindlessness and at times, even wickedness. But that Lord wishes to forgive our iniquities, remove the trace of our wrong doings, forget our unfaithfulnesses... provided we are ready to change our ways, and die to our sinful tendencies and ungodly priorities.
Unless the seed dies, it cannot give life...unless we choose to die to our selfishness and sinfulness, we shall never rise to eternal life. That is the journey that we have undertaken, from the time we were entrusted with the light at our baptism and beckoned to bring that light through to that encounter with the Lord; from the time that we were adorned with the garments of salvation at our baptism and required to bring it unsullied to the wedding feast of the Lamb. The effort to keep that light burning, to maintain that garment unsullied, is embracing death, on a daily basis - dying to our craving for pleasure, dying to our tendencies of selfishness, dying to our sense of stubborness!
The third lesson is to focus on the glory of eternal life.
The season of Lent is a time of refocusing, a time when we learn to perspectivise our life and get the right outlook to continue our journey. We are on our way to eternal life - a life in the Lord, a life of glory and light, a life that is endless and limitless. Our souls may be troubled at times. Our spirits may grow weak repeatedly. Our hearts may cry out in anguish and pain. Our light may go faint losing focus. But what need we do to: just as those people ask in the Gospel today, we need to say, "we wish to see Jesus"... we wish to focus on Jesus, the source of eternal salvation, the glory of eternal life that is given to us by God our Father and Mother, as the lamb of the eternal covenant, as the seal of the everlasting covenant, as the promise of eternal life!
We are on our way to Eternal life and on this way we have to embrace suffering and death, just as Jesus did, in order that we keep ourselves alive in the Spirit. When we do so, the Lord who is lifted up from the earth, shall draw us to himself, to eternal life!
