There are so many important messages in today’s readings for the 5th Sunday of Lent that I could write a treatise and still not cover everything. So, I will focus on just one line in today’s gospel, John 12:23, “"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Up to this point in St. John’s gospel, Jesus repeatedly told his mother, his disciples and other followers, “My hour has not yet come" (John 2:4) or “my time has not yet been fulfilled" (John 7:8). The signs of glorification were there at Jesus’ baptism and at the Transfiguration but now, these signs are about to become a very tangible reality.
This is the hour that the Children of Israel had been waiting many millennia for, but they didn’t recognize it. This is the hour the disciples had been waiting three years for but they didn’t understand it. This is the hour Jesus had been waiting his whole life for and it troubled and distressed him but he endured it for us. This is the hour when Jesus “became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (Hebrews 5:9). This is the hour when our salvation was secured by Jesus’ acceptance of death. Like the grain the wheat that dies to produce much fruit, Jesus had to die so that all of us can have eternal life.
Our observance of Lent is a progression through the ministry of Jesus leading up to his crucifixion, death and resurrection. During Lent, we re-read and re-live the great events of salvation history in the "today" of our Church’s liturgy (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1095). We engage in “spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works)” (CCC 1438). We do all these things to prepare ourselves spiritually for the glory of the Resurrection so that we will recognize and understand the enormity of the event.
Father in heaven,
The love of your Son led him
to accept the suffering of the cross
that we might glory in new life.
Change our selfishness into self-giving.
Help us to embrace the world you have given us,
that we may transform the darkness of its pain
into the life and joy of Easter.
Grant this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
