Unless a wheat grain

Fifth Sunday in Lent (B)

The Lord knows that the moment has come. He says, as we read today, “Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”  The Jewish feast of Passover is approaching. It will be this time in which the Jews celebrate their liberation from slavery in Egypt by a ritual that involves the sacrifice of a lamb that will be the time when Jesus himself will become the sacrificial lamb for the sake of the salvation of humanity.

In the words that follow we are taken into the mind of Jesus. The mind of Jesus is focused on why he will do what he must do. He knows that his death is not just the tragic outcome of his life. He knows that His death is not the result of political maneuverings, or the product of the envy and jealousy of the Jewish religious authorities.

He knows the meaning of what is about to overtake him. And he affirms it by means of a simple image: “Unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies it remains only a single grain. But if it dies it produces a rich harvest.”

Consider this image. A seed. A simple seed. It can look like a little stone. It seems to have no potential life within it. Yet planted in the ground it is wonderfully transformed. We have all seen the first shoots of a seed emerge through the soil. Notice the fresh beauty of the shoot as it comes forth. It is delicate and beautiful. We marvel at this new life bursting forth. And it will grow. A thousand, thousand times greater that its origin in the seed.

We marvel at nature in the potential for life and fruitfulness locked in such a small seed.

My brothers and sisters, this is true for us. We, in our humanity, are like a small seed. We have a capacity for life far, far greater than we experience now. We have been endowed with a soul. That soul will be transformed at our death into abundant life, far beyond our imagining. This new life will be beautiful.

But first this seed that is us must die, must go into the earth.

My brothers and sisters, the central mystery of Christianity is to be found in the mystery of dying and rising. It is not just what Christ himself endured, but it is to become the mystery for each of our lives.

Thus, the Lord teaches in the Gospel passage, “Anyone who loves his life will lose it, but anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” These are strong words, challenging words. We are to live not for this world alone, we are to live for eternal life. We are not to live for ourselves, with all our energy directed to achieving my personal goals for life. This is the recipe to lose true life.

We choose to die to ourselves following the pattern of Christ himself. As Jesus says quite explicitly, “If a man serves me, he must follow me”. Our gaze must not be on ourselves but on Christ. Each of us must embrace this mystery of dying and rising.

Jesus promises, “if anyone serves me, my Father will honour him”. 

Choose life, the Lord urges us. Live in this world with your heart set on heaven. Have an eternal perspective to your life. Do not settle for the pleasures of this world alone. Do not live for yourself alone.

For the Christian life is about discovering this eternal perspective. And in understanding this then the Christian understands that we are to give of ourselves. We are to be oriented beyond ourselves. We are not tied to this earth. We do not try to cling desperately to this life and what it may offer us. We are prepared to lose our lives.

And the Christian knows that the key to life now is to be found in the idea of sacrifice. We are called to sacrifice our lives for God, for others. If try to hold on to what we have we will lose it. This, the Lord teaches, can never be the way to full and eternal life.

The secret of the Christian life is a love which is a gift of self for the good of others. This is precisely what Christ did with his life. Christian love is found in giving freely of ourselves. We do not live for ourselves. We are prepared to sacrifice ourselves. Our focus is on God and on others. It is not on the self. It is not on the things of this world alone.

My brothers and sisters, we are about to enter into our annual commemoration of the Paschal mystery. Next Sunday is Palm Sunday and from thence we enter Holy Week. The Paschal mystery is not just about what Christ did, but it is heart of Christian mystery. We will be taken into not only the heart of God but led to realise the heart of our life as believers.

We will be reminded that we must learn to fall into the ground and die. And this is to be a daily reality for us. We are to become sharers in the Paschal mystery. Thus, we learn that our life is in fact truly found in the sacrifice of ourselves. We embrace the path of sacrifice. We walk the path of love in the way Jesus loved.

The Paschal mystery is the key to living the Christian life.

Archbishop Julian Porteous

Sunday 17 March, 2024