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!"