5th Sunday of Lent – Reflection of Diác. David Arroyo Alonso, C.R.
The Diac. David Arroyo Alonso, C.R. invites us to reflect on this 5th Sunday of Lent on: “A love given. Love of the world is to go out of oneself towards others ”. Based on today’s Gospel, which proposes that “The hour has come when the Son of man is going to be glorified”; and relying on the bases of article 87-88 of the Encyclical Letter Fratelli Tutti, of Pope Francis:
Dear brothers and sisters, we are celebrating the fifth Sunday of lent, the last days of preparation for Easter. On those Sundays, in this liturgical year B, the Gospel of John is showing us an interesting topic: the meaning of the Passover for Jesus. What is Passover? How Jesus understood this event?
On the third Sunday, Jesus told us about the destruction of the Temple and that He will raise a new one: his body. He is telling us to destroy everything that blocks and separates us from God and to build new relationships with others and with God: Passover is about the Re-Build.
Last Sunday, the forth, we found deeper meaning of Passover, as the most powerful expression of the love of God for the human people. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. Jesus invites us to see this mystery with new eyes, the eyes of Faith, in order to feel his presence in our life: Passover is Re-View.
This Sundays Gospel draws us closer to this point. Christ himself tells us: “Now the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified.” The Greeks and all humanity want to see Jesus, everyone is waiting for the moment of truth and Jesus showing them God’s project: Passover is for Jesus the moment of the Glory of God.
But look, glory could be the splendor or the power of God but here in this gospel the Glory of God is the cross. What glory is there in suffering? He is about to be arrested, punished and killed, yet he talks about his glory. Jesus saw beyond the clouds of pain and difficulty in order to behold success and eternal life. Today we’re invited to take part in this paradox: to die in order to live, to lose in order to win.
He gives us an example:
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.
The glory of God is the living man, the eternal life for all of us. Life only makes sense for us when it is given to love. The glory of God is found within the deep mystery of man.
Pope Francis in the encyclical Fratelli Tutti shows us this vocation of man. In paragraph 87 he says: the human beings are so made that they cannot live, develop and find fulfilment except in the sincere gift of self to others. When we deny ourselves and we step out of our comfort zone is when we produce a lot of fruit, it is when we can change the world.
This is the secret of the paradox for God: life doesn’t end with death, life like a gift, could be transformed in something better.
In other words, glory for God is understanding life like a gift, the following of Jesus is about love, the ability to offer oneself, taking the risk with one’s life at stake to save another, to deny and deprive oneself of one’s comfort and pleasure to make the life of others better.
Passover for Jesus is re-birth. And now we can complete this path with the Gospel:
Re-building, Re-view, Re-Birth.
Brothers and sisters, what sense there is in this Passover in 2021? I think the meaning is clear and powerful.
Without doubts the times in which we are now living are tough. Talking about death now has a special meaning. We have heard about the death of somebody near or familiar that in the midst of this pandemic God has called them to Himself. This is indeed hard. And yet, is it possible to speak of life amidst a pandemic? Of course. Jesus teaches us that we don’t lose those loved persons. No, because life has defeated death. Jesus has defeated it, He is alive!
This Passover is different for all of us. Special because we need to renew our faith in God, the God of life. We don’t lose our beloved ones, they are alive, they are like the grain of wheat, they have produced and will produce a lot of fruit.
Passover for us must have the same meaning that it had for Jesus: God is the God of life.
Let us grow in this faith, in these final days of lent.