Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year B

The Law Of The Gift

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year B

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Our Gospel for the fifth Sunday of Lent, Year B contains one of the most beautiful and terrible quotations in the entire Bible: “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.” We are told that some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast wanted to see Jesus. Coming to one of the disciples, Philip, they said, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” Some biblical commentators have opined that they wanted to inform Jesus about the seriousness of the danger surrounding him and also to suggest he flees with them to Greece. If that’s the case, Jesus’ response shows that he chose to face death rather than seek a way to escape. He preferred to do the will of the father. 

Look at this way: this is Jesus upon whom the crowds and his disciples had placed their hopes. His triumphant entry into the holy city of Jerusalem was seen by them as the time of fulfillment and liberation from their enemies. But right before them, Jesus speaks of falling to the ground and dying. To make matter more complicated, he says, “Whoever loves his life loses it and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.” When the people are talking about being raised up, Jesus is talking about falling down; and when the people thought that his triumphant entry into Jerusalem indicates a time of fulfillment, Jesus is talking about hating this life. 

What does this mean? This is what the great St. Pope John Paul II called “The Law of the Gift:” That your being increases in the measure that you give it all away. The Lord knows that if he avoids coming to the cross, if he flees with the Greeks and prolongs his life on earth, if he refuses to do the will of the Father, if the Father’s will is not his food, if he loves his life so much that he’s willing to do anything and everything to protect and prolong it, humanity will remain in sin; the prophetic vision of Jeremiah: “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 ancestors the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt…” (Jeremiah 31:31-32) “I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (33b) will remain unfulfilled, the enmity between God and the human race will continue, salvation will not be won, Satan will continue to have free rein, the general sense of hopelessness and despair will be intensified. More to it, the joy of salvation will not be attained, and the cause of Jesus would have ended. 

But by giving his life, by falling to the ground and dying like a seed, new life, great life, joyful life, hopeful life, peaceful life, and salvation is won for the human race. If a grain of wheat does not fall into the ground and dies, it simply remains a grain of wheat, an insignificant grain of wheat that doesn’t worth a lot. But it falls into the ground and dies, it germinates, grows, and produces lots of fruits that can feed a family, a group of people, a nation and the entire world. What’s so important to you? Life. Money. Time. Health. Wealth. Are you willing to let the will of God to trump over them? Are you willing to share them with others? Have you ever done something significant for someone that the person breaks down and sheds tears of joy and says to you, “Thank you! Thank you?” What you did has given some life to another, and you feel very glad and satisfied that you were able to do it. If you had hold on and never gives, you’ll not only deny life and joy to another but to yourself as well.