Homily: 5th Sunday of Lent - Unless a grain of wheat...

“Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat.”

Nature reveals a beautiful truth that is at the center of our Christian Faith.

Picture the common grain of wheat. Within its hard outer shell is a germ of life. The only way for this seed to bear fruit is to die to be placed in the darkness of the earth.

St. John ties this theme of the seed to the “hour” when Jesus is glorified, when his power and purpose of his life is most made manifest. When was the hour of Jesus' glory? At the virgin birth when angel choirs sang glory to God in the highest? When he multiplied the loaves to feed the five thousand? When he raised a dead man, Lazarus? No.

In John's Gospel at least, the “hour” of Jesus' glory is when he offers himself to the father on the cross suffers and died on the cross. His greatest hour, his greatest accomplishment occurs on the cross. This is why his final words in the Gospel of John are “Consummatum est” in the Latin. Τετελεσται, in St. John's Greek. It is finished, it is accomplished, it is consummated.

Tetelestai, interestingly, is both a word that a bill or debt has been paid in full, and also when a marriage bond has been made permanent.

Like the seed that dies in order to bear fruit, Jesus died that we may enjoy the fruit of eternal life. We call this the “Paschal Mystery”. It is the paradox that one must die in order to really live.

The Church presents us with this Gospel passage to put us in the right mindset for the upcoming festivities. For next Sunday, we shall not hear just prophecies about his death, but we shall read on Palm Sunday, once again, the story of his Passion, Death, and Crucifixion. We hear this Gospel of the grain of wheat, to help us understand why he goes to his death next week and why each of us must follow Him to the cross. For if we are unwilling to die to sin, we will not experience the new life Jesus died to purchase for us.

This Sundays Gospel carries special significance for the catechumens of the Church who are preparing for baptism at the Easter Vigil who are preparing to die to their former way of life, in order to fully embrace the Christian faith.

As a deacon, I was assigned to Holy Cross parish in Euclid, now Our Lady of the Lakes. And they have one of the great baptismal founts in the diocese. It is a full immersion fount; for in the early centuries of Churches, baptism was celebrated by being fully immersed in a river or body of water. So at the Easter Vigil, the catechumen climbs into the fount, and the priest baptizes them by totally immersing them under the water, like the seed going down into the dark earth to die, though go into the water of baptism to die to their sins.

What makes the symbolism even more powerful is that the baptismal fount is made of marble, it looks like you are literally going down intoa tomb, like the tomb of Joseph of Aramathea in which the body of Jesus was laid after he was taken off the cross.

Here at St. Clare, the baptismal fount is shaped not so much like a tomb, though it's still made out of marble. Here, our fount is in the shape of a triangle, symbolizing the three persons of the Holy Trinity, whose life we receive when we die to ourselves in Baptism.

Christians are not just called to die to themselves once, but every day. There is always some selfishness to turn away from. If we don't detect selfishness in our hearts, we aren't looking hard enough. In these last few weeks of Lent, we are still in the business of thorough self-examination. Where do I need to die in order to live. What do I need to relinquish—to renounce—to stop doing—so that the divine life can germinate within us and bear new fruit?

In our first reading, we heard from Jeremiah, probably my favorite prophet, and not just because he's often called the doom & gloom prophet, I think that's an unfair name for him anyway. He's really more of a prophet of extremes. He issues really severe warnings about the consequences of sin, but then he reminds us in some of the most eloquent language in Scripture of the beautiful promises of knowing God's mercy and kindness.

Jeremiah calls us to be conscious of our sins and evil doing—to turn away from them, but then in the next breath tells us, “God will forgive our evildoing and remember our sin no more.” We're not made for sin, we were made to be in right relationship with God. Yet, all too often, we are afraid to give up our comfortable sins for the new way of acting, and thinking, and giving, that comes from a lively faith.

The saints are a lot like Jeremiah--deeply aware of their sins, yet also on fire from the encounter with God's mercy. Because the saints admit their sins humbly, honestly before God, they become open in radical ways of bearing fruit for the kingdom of God. And we are all meant to do the same. Whenever we sin, whether mortal or venial we fail to bear the fruit we were meant to. But when we repent, God will bring new life into the world, through us.

For those of us who are already baptized, there are still a few more opportunities this Lent to die to our sins. A Communal Penance service with individual confessions will be available on monday night at St. Paschal's and here at St. Clare thursday night. Again if its been more than a year, even if you haven't committed any mortal sins, come and make a good confession, renew your commitment to dying to sin in order to receive new life from God.

Our reading from the letter to the Hebrews reminds us that Jesus is the source of eternal salvation. We cannot get to heaven on our own. He is the source, he is the fountain of life, and no one goes to heaven except by being in right relationship to God through Christ. We do not get to heaven simply by being a good person, but through Jesus.

In order to know Him as Savior, we must know ourselves as sinners. We still have much dying to do and much penance to do before Easter. Perhaps over the next two weeks, increase your prayer, fasting, and almsgiving; attend the Holy Week services on Holy Thursday and Good Friday. There are opportunities to turn away from former ways in order to experience the abundant life, the interior peace, wisdom, strength, and meaning, that comes from dying to self, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.