5th Sunday of Lent: The Grain of Wheat

03-17-2024Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

As we approach Holy Week, the Gospel reveals things that will happen to Jesus. It does not give us all the details, but Jesus nears the fulfillment of His mission. He speaks about the Paschal Mystery in the image of the “grain of wheat that dies to produce much fruit.” Jesus introduces this image after some Greeks approach His disciples to see Him and listen to His wisdom. - The expression would like to see Jesus, is more than being curious about the Lord. They want to meet, get to know, and hopefully follow Him to be His disciples. The Greeks are expressing a deep longing found in every heart of those who have known Him. - All of us want to see the face of Jesus and get to know Him more intimately. And hopefully, like the experience of Peter, James, and John at Mt. Tabor, we want to stay with Him as long as possible. We want to know the fullness of life.

Jesus in the Gospel shows us the way. He is the Way. The cost of discipleship is not cheap but costly and demands total commitment. He uses the grain of wheat analogy to refer to His sacrifice. The Son of Man must die so we will have life in Him. A way of dying, a sacrifice to bring new life, applies to Jesus and all who wish to be His disciples. In truth, we all still have a lot of dying to do… He continues this thought with this paradoxical statement: The man who loves his life loses it, while the man who hates his life in this world preserves it to life eternal. He invites His disciples to a decision: to choose life in Him above everything else.

Sowing is an act of faith and hope. It takes time for the seed to germinate, sprout, and eventually grow. It is just like following the Lord. Disciples do not go from being a seed to fruit-bearing immediately. Often, there is a period where we do not see any growth, but it doesn’t mean there is no growth. Everything happens in God’s own time and in His way. Jesus, on several occasions, speaks about His “hour.” The hour God fulfills His plan in Jesus at the appointed time.

God the Father is in control; those who wish to be His disciples should learn how to live according to His timing, in His own time. Just like in the Liturgical Calendar, Advent is the expectant waiting for the birth of the Messiah. Lent is the forty days of preparation and purification for the great Paschal Mystery, the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In the first reading, Jeremiah gives us a light of the Paschal Mystery in the promise of the New Covenant. But people misconstrued their Covenant with God as foreign from the outside, that even His Law of Love became a burden rather than a gift. That is why God plants the new Law in man’s heart and promises that the New Law will not be a burden like the previous one. The New Law is not carved in stones or written in parchment but planted within our hearts: I will place My Law within them and write it upon their hearts.

Disciples long for the Paschal Mystery not because they have to or because they have a deep love for the act of dying. But because the Lord has given them a new heart. This heart moves a disciple to love Him and join Him in the authentic way of love, the way of His cross and resurrection.

Ultimately, the Lord challenges us to graduate from loving to losing our lives, from being masters to becoming servants. Aim not to be successful in the eyes of the world; but in the eyes of God. Or work for the eyes of God only, seeking to be a blessing rather than to gain a blessing for ourselves. Help us Lord to graduate from our selfish life to a meaningful and free life.