Dying to Produce Fruit

5th Sunday of Lent Mar. 29, 2009 (Jn 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.

As we are nearing the celebration of Jesus' passion, death and resurrection, the Gospel readings are already pointing to the events of Jesus' crucifixion. In the Gospel last Sunday, Jesus explained to Nicodemus how He must be lifted up like the serpent in the desert from Old Testament times. Today, Jesus speaks about His hour, the hour when He will fulfill His mission on earth, the hour when He shall die on the cross, the hour of His glory.

Jesus compares Himself to a grain of wheat that must die in order to produce fruit. But more than just a metaphor for His death, this parable of the grain of wheat is a call for us followers of Christ to "die" so we may bear fruit. As Jesus said, "Whoever serves me must follow me..." (Jn 12:26) Therefore, if Jesus' mission is to die to produce fruit, we should also follow Jesus' example. We should also die.

Now "dying" does not necessarily have to be literal. Dying in order to produce fruit means that we should die to our sinful selves and emerge as new persons, just like in Baptism. It also entails sacrificing for other people who are in need, denying oneself in order to help them. Literally dying for the faith, or dying a martyr's death, is not an opportunity given to all Christians. But even if we are not given the chance to die for God and for our neighbor, the challenge for all of us is to live for God and for our neighbor. Our whole life can be a sacrifice to God, in service of our neighbors. And this sacrifice, since a sacrifice always hurts us, will be our "death" that will produce much fruit.

In Jesus' death, He will gather all people to Himself. By "all people", He meant everyone. This is symbolized by the Greeks who came looking for Jesus. Jesus' salvation is for all of us; it is not exclusive, because we are all in need of salvation. Jesus' blood is enough to purchase all men. There is no single person whose sins are so great that Jesus could not have saved him. Nevertheless, all who seek salvation must first believe and follow Jesus.

As we enter Holy Week, let us remember the importance of sacrifice, the importance of pain and suffering. For as Jesus said, "Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life." (Jn 12:25). Therefore we must set our eyes to the things of heaven, and deny ourselves and sacrifice for the good of all. Let us also remember that Easter cannot come without Good Friday and that the hour of Jesus' glory (Jn 12:23) is the hour of His death.

The Greatest Evidence of God's Love

4th Sunday of Lent Mar. 22, 2009 (Jn 3:14-21)

Jesus said to Nicodemus: "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God."

God is love and He loves us all. This is something very elementary for us Catholics. We all know this. In fact, John 3:16, a verse which speaks about God's love, is a very popular Bible verse. But sometimes, being too familiar with this fact, with this verse, we forget what it means. We are no longer in awe when we here about God's great love.

The Gospel for today speaks about how God loved the world so much. This He showed by giving to us His only Son to die for our salvation. Jesus is the greatest evidence of God's love for us. This is how great God loves us: He allowed His Son to be subject to suffering and death in order to save us. All this He did even when we were still sinners. Imagine trying to risk your only son's life just to save criminals? But that is how God loved us.

Jesus is the greatest evidence of God's love. In the first part of the Gospel, Jesus foretold His redemptive act of love in a metaphorical way. He spoke about how he must be raised up like the bronze serpent Moses raised up in the desert to save the Israelites who were bitten by snakes. Just as the Israelites were saved from death when they looked at the bronze serpent, so all of us will be saved through faith in Jesus Christ.

All the teachings of Christianity may be summed up in this one word: LOVE. The Gospel we proclaim is the Gospel of Love. God loved us first, and, in response, we must love God back and also love our neighbors.

God's love is so overwhelming that we ought to share it with other people. Therefore, God's love also gives us a mission - to make other people feel that God loves them too, just in case they might not feel it.

This Lent, we are invited to reflect on the magnitude of God's love. We ought to feel this love in remembering Jesus' redemptive act. We are also challenged to live according to the demands of God's love, in obedience to the commandment of love. We ought to love God and our neighbors, especially those in great need. We should not only speak about the Gospel of love. We must show it by loving other people. As a song goes, "And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love!"

I remember when I was in Grade School. I drew a picture of Jesus carrying the cross. Then I erased the cross and replaced it with many hearts, forming the shape of the cross. The picture below shows how the cross looked like. (Although I didn't draw Jesus carrying it anymore.) When I drew that picture years ago, I had this thought in mind: "Jesus is the greatest evidence of God's love!"

Set Apart from the World

3rd Sunday of Lent Mar. 15, 2009 (Jn 2:13-25)

Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money changers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold the doves he said, "Take these out of here, and stop making my Father's house a marketplace." His disciples recalled the words of Scripture, "Zeal for your house will consume me." At this the Jews answered and said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?" Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?" But he was speaking about the temple of his body. Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.

While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, many began to believe in his name when they saw the signs he was doing. But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all, and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well.

Today, we see Jesus cleansing the temple by driving away those who sold sheep, oxen and doves, as well as the money changers. Jesus tells them to stop making the temple a marketplace. The temple is the dwelling place of God and as such, it should be treated with respect. Something holy is something set apart and blessed. Therefore, the temple, being holy, should be set apart, free from worldly activities like the cheating done by money changers.

This particular narrative reminds us that in going to church, we must not act in the same way as we would in going to malls. We must have the proper disposition, wearing the proper attire and ready to worship God and to listen to His Words. This is giving proper respect to God and to His dwelling place.

Yes, we ought to respect the temple of God. We should cleanse it free of worldly things.

In this season of Lent, this Gospel passage calls us to holiness of life. It tells us that God's dwelling place must be respected and treated as holy. And since, according to Saint Paul, we too are the dwelling places of God (1 Cor 3:16-17), we ought to be holy.

Of course, we cannot become holy by our efforts alone. We need the help of God. We need to ask Jesus to cleanse us from our sins just as He cleansed the temple of worldly activities. And that is what Lent is all about. It is a time when we remember the worldly things surrounding our hearts and ask the Lord to get rid of these for us. We must strive to keep ourselves free from impure worship and a corrupted relationship with God.

It is really quite a challenge to be holy when we live in a material world. But that is the challenge of this Lenten Season. We must separate ourselves from worldly activities, except of course, those necessary for our survival. We must deny ourselves worldly pleasures and set our eyes on the things above. We must not be of this world even if we are in it.

Our church edifices are comparable to malls, in the sense that they are both buildings. But the big difference lies in this: Malls raise their billboards and advertisements as high as they can in order to remind people to patronize them and their products. Our churches, on the other hand, raise crosses and crucifixes as high as they can in order to show us the Savior and to remind us of our call to be holy. This is how the Church, though in the world, is not of the world. It is set apart from worldly things. We too, must be separated from the world. A balloon cannot reach heaven if its string is anchored to the ground. Similarly, we cannot reach the heavenly Kingdom if we attach ourselves to the world.

The Glory of Mount Calvary Foretold

2nd Sunday of Lent Mar. 8, 2009 (Mk 9:2-10)

Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, "Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him." Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.

As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant.

Jesus, in our Gospel today, is transfigured before Peter, James and John, on the top of a high mountain. Moses and Elijah appeared before Him and conversed with Him. Peter, probably ecstatic but not knowing what to say, wanted to stay there. Suddenly, the voice of the Father was heard from a cloud, saying "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him." Then, the vision was no more. Jesus was alone when the three disciples looked again.

The events of the Transfiguration are probably very familiar to us already. But what does this event in Jesus' life try to tell us? What is its significance in the Gospel, in the story of our redemption?

The Transfiguration is a revelation of Jesus' glory. We can note some similarities between this event and that of Jesus' Baptism, where the Father also proclaimed Jesus His only Son. The Father reveals Jesus to us and establishes Jesus' authority.

Moreover, the Transfiguration is a foreshadowing of things to come - Jesus' passion death and resurrection. Just as Jesus was made glorious on a mountain in His Transfiguration, He shall soon be made glorious on Mount Calvary, triumphant over sin in his death and resurrection.

This act of redemption, revealed only in Jesus, has been the plan of God all along. The Law, represented by Moses, and the prophets, represented by Elijah, all find fulfillment in Jesus and in His redemptive act. Jesus, conversing with Moses and Elijah, symbolizes such a great connection between the Old and the New Testaments and it makes one realize how marvelously God prepared our redemption throughout salvation history. The Transfiguration is indeed a glorious moment.

Beholding such glory, the disciples must have been in awe as much as they were terrified. Peter, in confusion, offered to stay there. But that vision, that moment of glory, was not everlasting. They cannot stay there. Jesus knew that He had to come down the mountain and face His mission - to suffer, to die, and to rise again. He had to climb another mountain, that is Calvary. The Transfiguration was not an escape from Calvary. Rather, it was a source of hope and strength for the disciples, and probably for Jesus too, who will be facing so much sufferings and difficulties.

Like Peter, we are often tempted to stay on the mountain of Transfiguration; we dwell in our past successes, refusing to do what remains to be done. But we have a mission to do. We have more mountains to climb. As Christians, we need to understand the great value of suffering. Life is not all resurrection and glory. In His Transfiguration, Jesus shows us that He is glorious because He does the will of the Father, even if it means suffering and stripping off His own glory as the Son of God.

Being faithful to our mission means embracing the pain and suffering that we shall meet. But God will transfigure us and give us strength, because He never abandons those who follow His path; He guides them. It is when we become faithful regardless of suffering that we can finally share in the full splendor and glory of the resurrection, in the life that is to come.

Man: His Power Against Temptation

1st Sunday of Lent Mar. 1, 2009 (Mk 1:12-15)

The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.

After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."

We are subject to temptation. This is because we, whose destiny is eternity in heaven, are born in time in this world where sin has crept. The lures of the evil one is very strong in this material world. So we have no choice. We will be subject to temptation; that's inevitable. We may sometimes crumble in the face of it. But we have the power to stand up and resist all temptation.

We Filipinos often hear, and even use, the "Tao lang, nagkakamali rin." argument. But this should not be abused. True, we have weaknesses. But we also have special capabilities that comes from God. We are gifted with intelligence, with a reason which tells us what is right; but often we do not listen to it. We are given faith, so we may call on God, our Father; but we do not pray. The "Tao lang, nagkakamali rin." statement should not make us dwell in our mistakes, accepting them as if they were alright. It should be a reminder, a challenge for us all to be bothered by the fact that we are weak and flawed, and thus be inspired to try and live a more virtuous life.

Jesus, in our Gospel today, shows us that living a virtuous life even when we're immersed in a culture of sin and death, is very possible. Jesus lived in the desert among wild beasts (Mk 1:12), yet He remained unharmed. In the same way, Jesus sends us like lambs among wolves. We are exposed, and sometimes, even threatened, by the wolves of evil in this world, but we are strong. The secret of Jesus' strength comes from God. The angels ministering to Jesus remind us that we, too, are in need of help; we offer to God our worship while we admit that we are sinners.

In this very dangerous world, Lent challenges us to die with our old selves in order to be made knew. We are called to acknowledge sinfulness and to repent. Most especially, we are called to believe in the good news of the kingdom.