Happy St. Patrick’s Day.
You may have heard the story of the Irish pastor by the name of Fr. Murphy. Everyone loved Fr. Murphy: he baptized all the children, officiated at their marriages, visited them in the hospitals, and buried their loved ones. He was a wonderful human being. But he was a terrible preacher. Forgetful. Rambling. And repetitive. Finally some parishioners went to the bishop. Bishop invited Murph to the chancery to give him a few pointers on “what makes a good homily.” You have to grab the congregation’s attention. For example, let me tell you what I did last weekend at a parish: I announced: I’m in love with a woman. Hush in congregation. In fact, I’ve been in love with her for 40 years. Another hush. That woman is the Blessed Virgin Mary.
And on the following Sunday, Murphy went into the pulpit and announced: the bishop is in love with a woman. Shock waves. For 40 years. More shock waves. But for the life of me, I can’t remember her name. So much for Irish humor.
This Fifth Sunday of Lent, the word of God takes us back in our imaginations to the 6th century before Jesus.
The 6th century was a catastrophe for the Hebrews. Yet, Jeremiah dreams of a new covenant with God, a new friendship summed up in that magnificent phrase, “You are my people and I am your God.”
This covenant will be written in people's hearts. Yes, God will grace them to keep their promises. Jeremiah challenges us to be faithful to our calling in life, to ask each day for the grace to live well as sons and daughters of God.
The letter to the Hebrews describes the saving work of Jesus Christ, who through his dying and rising has rescued us from death, from nothingness, and opened up to us new life beyond this earthly life.
Yes: Jesus, already transfigured into a new heavenly reality, anticipates our own future when God will transfigure us as well.
The author challenges us to remember our ultimate purpose: salvation -- eternal life with God.
In the Gospel, Jesus is in Jerusalem for the Passover meal which celebrates the exodus: the deliverance of the ancient Hebrews from their oppressors. Now Gentiles, non-Jews, were seeking Jesus.
For the author, to see Jesus is to believe in him. Yes, the hour has come. Only by his dying and rising will we have eternal life.
That is the point of the parable about the grain of wheat. Only if Jesus is lifted up on a cross, buried in a tomb, to burst forth gloriously on Easter in a new spiritual embodiment, will the risen Christ draw all men and women into a new heavenly reality.
Yes, Jesus is indeed our salvation. Whether powerful or powerless, rich or poor, brilliant or simple, born here or elsewhere, the purpose of life for all of us is to be in relationship with God: to seek and find friendship with God forever.
The Catholic answer to the question, why are we here? acknowledges the brevity and fragility of human life.
Playwright Tennessee Williams, known for “A Streetcar Named Desire” observed: "Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going...." Think about it.
The Catholic answer urges us to seek the grace to become the best version of ourselves. It acknowledges our freedom to choose good over evil, right over wrong, and vice versa, sadly! Each of us is responsible for the way we choose to live.
There is a tendency within ourselves to sometimes choose wrong. The Catholic tradition calls this “original sin.”
Yet human beings cry out for healing, redemption, salvation. Some look for answers in things, in other persons, in the many “isms.”
But the Catholic tradition looks to a power beyond ourselves, to a God who is not indifferent to our brokenness. An all-good God who created us and loves us.
Yes, God became flesh in Jesus and is alive by the power of the Spirit and is in our midst today—alive within us by virtue of baptism; alive in the Scriptures and alive in the signs of bread and wine upon the altar. We possess in our fragile selves the gift of God’s triune life, God’s grace.
Yes, we are born to be in that awesome relationship with God. Yet, we must struggle against dark forces within ourselves that threaten to derail us on our journey toward our heavenly dwelling place.
Salvation ultimately means God abiding in us and we in God.
Our faith proclaims that God’s life leaps out of death; beyond the agony of our Good Friday is the ecstasy of Easter.
And so I pray that hearing the word of God today, we will recharge ourselves to seek God first, to live a God-centered, other-centered, life.
