BIBLE STUDY
FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT
March 25, 2012

READING 1
JEREMIAH 31:31-34

The days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers
the day I took them by the hand
to lead them forth from the land of Egypt;
for they broke my covenant,
and I had to show myself their master, says the LORD.
But this is the covenant that I will make
with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD.
I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts;
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
No longer will they have need to teach their friends and relatives
how to know the LORD.
All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD,
for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.

The Word of the Lord

READING 2
HEBREWS 5:7-9

In the days when Christ Jesus was in the flesh,
he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears
to the one who was able to save him from death,
and he was heard because of his reverence.
Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered;
and when he was made perfect,
he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

The Word of the Lord

GOSPEL
JOHN 12:20-33

Some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast
came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee,
and asked him, "Sir, we would like to see Jesus."
Philip went and told Andrew;
then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.
Jesus answered them,
"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
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.
Whoever loves his life loses it,
and whoever hates his life in this world
will preserve it for eternal life.
Whoever serves me must follow me,
and where I am, there also will my servant be.
The Father will honor whoever serves me.

"I am troubled now. Yet what should I say?
'Father, save me from this hour?'
But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.
Father, glorify your name."
Then a voice came from heaven,
"I have glorified it and will glorify it again."
The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder;
but others said, "An angel has spoken to him."
Jesus answered and said,
"This voice did not come for my sake but for yours.
Now is the time of judgment on this world;
now the ruler of this world will be driven out.
And when I am lifted up from the earth,
I will draw everyone to myself."
He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.

The Gospel of the Lord

Reflection

Greeks, in this sense, does not mean people from Greece, but probably Gentile proselytes (pagans converted to Judaism and circumcised). They approached Philip, who approached James, both of whom have distinctly Greek names, which suggests that these 2 mediated Jesus to the Greek world. Philip and James were from Bethsaida; they were Galileans who were usually bilingual.

We hear Jesus talk about his “hour” more than once in the Gospels. For example, in John 2, the Wedding at Cana, Mary tells Jesus that they have no wine. He responds, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” In John chapter 7, the religious authorities tried to arrest Jesus, but they didn’t because “his hour had not yet come”. And, in John 13:1, Jesus washes the feet of his disciples the night before died: “Jesus knew that his ‘hour’ had come.”

His hour is a time when he is glorified and lifted up, a time of victory and judgment. His hour is a time of anguish and suffering when he embraces death and resurrection, which has the universal effect of drawing people to faith; it also initiates a new era in salvation history. John can’t think of Jesus death without reference to his resurrection. Jesus hour is not only the anguish of the cross, but the glory of the resurrection.

In the Old Testament, the terms ‘glory’ and ‘glorification’ refer to God revealing himself in the exercise of his power and love; people respond to that power and love by honoring God is some positive manner. Jesus’ death and resurrection reveal God’s love, and the disciples (including us), respond by following Jesus and through faith in him receive the saving live of God.

This ‘glorification’ is described in terms of a grain of wheat that dies and bears much fruit. The death of Jesus leads to new life for many; through Jesus we share in God’s divine life. When we ‘die’ in Christ, we then ‘rise’ to a new life. By ourselves, we are barren; with God, we produce much fruit. When we die to our old selves of sin, then we are reborn to new and everlasting life.

If we refuse to die with Christ, we are throwing away an opportunity to rise to eternal life. We may have lots of earthly things, but we will die in the end.

The word ‘hate’ means that we hate sin and anything that keeps us separated from God: we hate the earthly life of sin that will deprive us of eternal life. We lose our life in Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life and we gain not only eternal life, but happiness, peace and meaning in our earthly life. We are called to follow Jesus and to imitate him in our lives. If we do so, the Father will honor us, that is, grant us eternal life.

Jesus says he is ‘troubled’; this may be a reference to Gethsemane. Jesus does not pray to be saved from his suffering because this is the desire of the Father, “It was for this purpose that I came to this hour.” Jesus is more interested in glorifying God. He wants to reveal God’s saving love and life so people can come to know God through him. The Father and the Son are in perfect harmony. Through the voice form heaven, God confirms and grants Jesus request for glorification.

The judgment on the world is that the ruler of the world will be driven out. The ruler is Satan, and Jesus will conquer Satan (and sin and death) in his passion, death, and resurrection. His being ‘lifted up from the earth’ (crucifixion) which draws believers away from Satan and to the saving love of God.

In the first reading from Jeremiah, King Josiah instituted a religious reform because of the rediscovery of the Book of Deuteronomy in the Temple. Jeremiah was a supporter of this renewal. When Josiah died in battle, his successor, Jehoiam, was weak and did not continue the reform. He was also weak politically and eventually fell to the Babylonians. They were in a dire situation. Today’s passage comes from a section of Jeremiah called the Book of Comfort (Chaps. 30-33). This is comforting because the new covenant that God will make with his people goes beyond the covenant made with the people when they left Egypt. We believe that this new covenant described in this reading is fulfilled in Jesus and is available to those who have faith in Jesus. This knd of faith will last forever, be written in our hearts, and will give us true knowledge of God.


The Gospel for the scrutinies:

JOHN 11:1-45

Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany,
the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil
and dried his feet with her hair;
it was her brother Lazarus who was ill.
So the sisters sent word to him saying,
"Master, the one you love is ill."
When Jesus heard this he said,
"This illness is not to end in death,
but is for the glory of God,
that the Son of God may be glorified through it."
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So when he heard that he was ill,
he remained for two days in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to his disciples,
"Let us go back to Judea."
The disciples said to him,
"Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you,
and you want to go back there?"
Jesus answered,
"Are there not twelve hours in a day?
If one walks during the day, he does not stumble,
because he sees the light of this world.
But if one walks at night, he stumbles,
because the light is not in him."
He said this, and then told them,
"Our friend Lazarus is asleep,
but I am going to awaken him."
So the disciples said to him,
"Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved."
But Jesus was talking about his death,
while they thought that he meant ordinary sleep.
So then Jesus said to them clearly,
"Lazarus has died.
And I am glad for you that I was not there,
that you may believe.
Let us go to him."
So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples,
"Let us also go to die with him."

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus
had already been in the tomb for four days.
Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away.
And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary
to comfort them about their brother.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went to meet him;
but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus,
"Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
God will give you."
Jesus said to her,
"Your brother will rise."
Martha said to him,
"I know he will rise,
in the resurrection on the last day."
Jesus told her,
"I am the resurrection and the life;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?"
She said to him, "Yes, Lord.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world."

When she had said this,
she went and called her sister Mary secretly, saying,
"The teacher is here and is asking for you."
As soon as she heard this,
she rose quickly and went to him.
For Jesus had not yet come into the village,
but was still where Martha had met him.
So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her
saw Mary get up quickly and go out,
they followed her,
presuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him,
she fell at his feet and said to him,
"Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died."
When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping,
he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said,
"Where have you laid him?"
They said to him, "Sir, come and see."
And Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, "See how he loved him."
But some of them said,
"Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man
have done something so that this man would not have died?"

So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb.
It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.
Jesus said, "Take away the stone."
Martha, the dead man's sister, said to him,
"Lord, by now there will be a stench;
he has been dead for four days."
Jesus said to her,
"Did I not tell you that if you believe
you will see the glory of God?"
So they took away the stone.
And Jesus raised his eyes and said,
"Father, I thank you for hearing me.
I know that you always hear me;
but because of the crowd here I have said this,
that they may believe that you sent me."
And when he had said this,
He cried out in a loud voice,
"Lazarus, come out!"
The dead man came out,
tied hand and foot with burial bands,
and his face was wrapped in a cloth.
So Jesus said to them,
"Untie him and let him go."

Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary
and seen what he had done began to believe in him.

The Gospel of the Lord

Reflection

This Gospel is popular at funerals for its promise of rising from the dead. However, remember that Lazarus was raised to earthly life and he had to die a second time (called a resuscitation); Jesus was raised to eternal life or resurrection.

The death and rising of Lazarus prefigures the dying and rising of Christ. Ironically, as Lazarus is raised, the religious authorities are looking for ways to kill Jesus.

The main theme in this whole story is that Jesus dies to give us life. He suffers so that we may live.

The raising of Lazarus also tells me that Jesus gives us life in the sense that our life on earth is so much more blessed when we believe. Sin kills us spiritually, and we are spiritually raised to new life because of Jesus sacrifice on the cross. Jesus died for our sins so we can live in his peace and can be his light to others.

A story called “The Quilt”:

I faced my Maker at the last judgment, I knelt before the Lord along with all the other souls. Before each of us laid our lives like the squares of a quilt in many piles; an angel sat before each of us sewing our quilt squares together into a tapestry that was our life.

But as my angel took each piece of cloth off the pile, I noticed how ragged and empty each of my squares was. They were filled with giant holes. Each square was labeled with a part of my life that had been difficult, the challenges and temptations I was faced with in every day life. I saw hardships that I endured, which were the largest holes of all.

I glanced around me. Nobody else had such squares. Other than a tiny hole here and there, the other tapestries were filled with rich color and the bright hues of worldly fortune. I gazed upon my own life and was disheartened.

My angel was sewing the ragged pieces of cloth together, threadbare and empty, like binding air.

Finally the time came when each life was to be displayed, held up to the light, the scrutiny of truth. The others rose, each in turn, holding up their tapestries.. So filled their lives had been. My angel looked upon me and nodded for me to rise.

My gaze dropped to the ground in shame. I hadn't had all the earthly fortunes. I had love in my life and laughter. But there had also been trials of illness and wealth, and false accusations that took from me my world, as I knew it. I had to start over many times. I often struggled with the temptation to quit, only to somehow muster the strength to pick up and begin again. I spent many nights on my knees in prayer, asking for help and guidance in my life. I had often been held up to ridicule, which I endured painfully, each time offering it up to the Father in hopes that I would not melt within my skin beneath the judgmental gaze of those who unfairly judged me.

And now, I had to face the truth: My life was what it was, and I had to accept it for what it was.

I rose and slowly lifted the combined squares of my life to the light. An awe-filled gasp filled the air. I gazed around at the others who stared at me with wide eyes.

Then, I looked upon the tapestry before me. Light flooded the many holes, creating an image: the face of Christ. Then our Lord stood before me, with warmth and love in His eyes. He said, 'Every time you gave over your life to Me, it became My life, My hardships, and My struggles.

Each point of light in your life is when you stepped aside and let Me shine through, until there was more of Me than there was of you.'

May all our quilts be threadbare and worn, allowing Christ to shine through!


Fr. Phil