Daring to die: absolute commitment to righteousness

THE WORD IN LENT - Monday, Fifth week

March 18, 2024 -  Daniel 13:1-9,15-17,19-30,33-62; John 8: 1-11

Through the desert God leads us to freedom, and we are in the last lap of this journey as we begin the last week before the Holy Week. This week the Word shall lead us through a reflection on what it means to dare to die! And today we have a radical signification: it is an absolute commitment to righteousness.

Let us begin with the first reading - the famous story of Susanna. She had made an absolute choice for righteousness. Come what may, she did not give up her choice for righteousness, she detested any compromise. The result: she was plotted against, cornered, accused falsely and judged to deserve death. What did she do? Looked for ways to redeem herself by hook or by crook? No, she dared to die, for the sake of her commitment to righteousness. She stands an iconic precedence of Jesus Christ, who had done the same - chose to remain righteous and dared to die for it.

Turning our focus to the Gospel - we have another woman here, who had not chosen initially righteousness as her way of life! She was not accused falsely, although there was nothing that warranted the righteousness of those who accused her. What did she do? She had resigned herself to death. She knew she would not live any more, but to her surprise, life was given back to her, with a challenge: go and sin no more! Now what did she do? She chose righteousness, we guess and remained a disciple of Christ! 

The message is clear: our call to righteousness comes from our very identity as children of God. If we made an absolute commitment to righteousness right from the beginning, blessed be the Lord, we shall stand testimonies to the presence of God. But if we had failed or even if we fail repeatedly, there is the call to recommit to righteousness, how ready are we to commit ourselves? That is the question. 

Now the added challenge is: when we commit to righteousness, which in itself is a difficult task, there will be more challenges and crises to face. What would we do? Dare to die? Then we shall rise with the one who is the Eternal Righteousness. We shall rise to glory, but we need to dare to die, in our absolute commitment to righteousness. 

DARING TO DIE, RISING TO GLORY

Law in the hearts, tears in the eyes, resolve in the spirit!

THE WORD IN LENT - FIFTH SUNDAY

March 17, 2024 - Jeremiah 31: 31-34; Hebrews 5: 7-9; John 12: 20-33

Through the desert God leads us to freedom, and the journey is nearing its end. Jesus has started speaking intensely about his death, the imminent suffering and the desperate things that have to happen, in order that the glory of God may be revealed: "Father, glorify your name!" he prays today! It takes great courage to make that prayer, for he knew very well what it amounted to. 

The Word today apparently can seem to say too many things, it may look like dissipated in focus, but that is not true. Everything converges in one line - the need to die in order to rise! It is a constant movement that is expected of us - something has to die within us, in order that something new arises; in the final analysis, we need to die, to rise anew! Dying is as much spiritual as the longing to rise; that is why rising to glory requires daring to die. Daring to die and rising to glory, belong to the same continuum, there is no rupture in between. It is not a movement from bad to good, or evil to holy, but a choice to be made on a daily basis, to ground ourselves, get rooted and thus grow to be what we are, in the deepest of our beings.

In this the first consideration could be that of grace, that in God's mercy God has placed the law in our hearts. We know the Lord. Knowing the Lord is a grace; it is God who enables us to know. Knowing the law of the Lord, hearing the Word every day, listening to the Lord speak to us and becoming aware of that voice resounding all around us, is a profound gift to us. The Lord speaks to us through  Jeremiah telling us once again how God has made a covenant with us and how at no point of time God will turn unfaithful to that covenant; that is a reminder of the numerous times that we have retracted on the baptismal promises that we have made. It does not matter the Lord says: I forgive your iniquity and never call your sin to mind. The marvellous gift of the sacrament of reconciliation invites us in this season to experience this profound grace. 

The second consideration needs to be our will, our readiness to respond to the grace of God. The sign of that is the tears in our eyes. We obey the Lord. Obeying the Lord is at times dying to our ego, dying to our selfishness, dying to our self-seeking, dying to our tendencies to please ourselves. This is a matter of tears, that is a matter of humility and sincere effort. The silent tears of Jesus that the letter to the Hebrews refers to, enunciates the heart writhing efforts to remain faithful to the Lord - that is obedience; it is not just doing what is convenient to us and what is pleasing to us. Neither is it asking the Lord to do things that will make us feel good! There are so much tears involved in every journey that leads us back to the Lord - the challenge is how ready are we to undertake these journeys and in what frequency. 

A third consideration is about perseverance, our determination to remain when everything seems to be dead, our resolve in the spirit. We see the glory of the Lord, even at the darkest moment of our lives. When those Greeks, arriving at Jerusalem for worship, heard about Jesus they wished to see him - just as so many others wished to see Jesus; think of Herod who wanted to see him, think of the leaders and elders who constantly demanded for signs and the masses who were frenetically looking for some wonders. But with a difference, the Greeks did not get lost in their curiosity, they sought to see Jesus, and they found ways - they approach Philip and moved him to speak to Andrew and probably the disciples led them to Jesus! The resolve to see, to see the real glory of Jesus, can take us to arduous circumstances - that is why we need to dare!

To dare to die is to recognise this grace from the Lord to know the Lord, allow the grace to move us to a willingness and readiness to obey the Lord, and endure till we see the real glory of the Lord. As the grain that dies, remains in obscurity, but endures that time to break the ground towards seeing the light of day, so does our spirit need to remain, persevere and actualise the choice to obey the Lord, remain faithful to the Lord and rise to manifest the glory of the Lord. 

When Jesus says those words: Father glorify your name, he submits himself to the One who was animating him and that is the daring choice, daring to die! When Jesus promises to draw all children of God to himself, he speaks of his rising to glory in the Lord - because of his submission, his obedience, his self-emptying, his dying. The Word this week invites us to reflect on this dying - and that reflection will bring us closer to rising in glory. Let us pray that during this last week before we begin the Holy week, we would be led to that courage and grace of daring to die, that we may see the glory and rise to glory!