In Christ there is hope and meaning
Fifth Sunday of Lent (C)
At this stage in the Lenten season the eyes of the Church are directed towards its culmination in the solemn commemoration of the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Next Sunday is Palm Sunday and so we enter into Holy Week.
We are still to preserve our Lenten disciplines as we are reminded that they are an important part of our spiritual preparation for our commemoration of the Paschal mystery.
We prepare now in anticipation for the solemn festivities to come. Our eyes are fixed on Easter.
In the second reading in the liturgy today we have a powerful testimony of the faith of St Paul. It is a worthy source of reflection for us as we prepare for Easter.
His conviction about the centrality of Jesus in his life speaks to us the essential meaning of being a Christian.
When he says, “I believe that nothing can happen what will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”, we can test these words against the depth of our own faith. Would we be able to say the same thing with utter conviction: “I believe that nothing can happen what will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”?
These words remind us that our faith is not just one aspect of our life among others. Our personal faith and conviction about what we believe is the very heart of all that we are about.
For St Paul his conviction was the result of his radical encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus. It led to his conversion to the Christian faith, which up to that point he had been determined to persecute and destroy.
We may not have had such a radical re-orientation of our lives, however, each of us has faith, and that faith is very important to us.
St Paul goes on to describe how he now desires to live. Again, we can take these words and consider them in the light of our own faith and intentions for our life.
He says, “All I want is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection”.
He desires above all else to continue to grow in his personal relationship with Christ. Living in union with Christ is a daily preoccupation. No doubt at the centre of this would have been his active life of prayer. His letters reveal his steady seeking of what Christ would want him to do next.
And he reveals also that what matters most for him is that when his life’s journey is over he will, as he says, “take his place in the resurrection of the dead”. For St Paul the clear driving force to his life is his hope to receive what his relationship with Christ ultimately offers – the resurrection from the dead and life eternal in union with God.
Easter approaches and we will engage with the meaning of the death and resurrection of Christ. In the Easter liturgies we are confronted by the deepest issues for every human being – the reality of suffering and of death.
The human heart is oriented to the belief that this life is not all there is. We identify within ourselves a yearning for life beyond death. Our deepest hope that at the end of life we will be able to take our place and share in the glory of the resurrection. We know that our life is but a pilgrimage. Here is no lasting place. We are on a journey towards eternity and our task now is to orient our lives towards our final destiny.
St Paul reminds us today that on this journey we must grow closer and closer to Christ. St Paul reminds us that we must place Christ at the centre of all that we are and all that we do. He is not just to be on the margins of our life, or one element among many that attracts our interest. He is to be the centre, the foundation, the animation of all that we are and all that we do.
Thus, we, like St Paul, don’t look back but, as he says, we “strain ahead for what is to come”. Our eyes are fixed on heaven and all we do now is shaped by what awaits us. Again, quoting St Paul, “I am racing for the finish, for the prize to which God calls us upwards in Christ Jesus”.
This inspires each Christian to live with hope and expectation. This is what enables each Christian to bear with the struggles and sufferings that mark every human life. This is what fosters a willingness to sacrifice ourselves, and not succumb to passing satisfactions. This is what helps us move beyond seeking solely our own comfort and pleasure.
The Christian is a person who has placed Christ at the heart of their existence. As St Paul said in another place: “For me to live is Christ”.
And it can be no less for each one of us.
Our commemoration of the Paschal Mystery is approaching once again. This year let us participate in Holy Week with a desire to enter more deeply into its profound mystery.
The Christian life is about dying and rising. It is about taking up our cross and following Christ. It is about having a spirit of hope that enables us to rise above the challenges, disappointments and failures that mark every human life.
In Christ there is salvation. In Christ there is meaning to all human experiences. In Christ there is a trust that takes us beyond despair. In Christ our faith urges us on. In Christ we know that the final victory is ours.
Archbishop Julian Porteous
Sunday, 6 April 2025