5th Sunday Lent Its the Paschal Mystery


John’s Gospel can be a challenge.

It presents to us a Christology from on high, meaning, it starts with Jesus’ divinity and works towards his humanity.
We have these wonderful, theologically complex speeches from Jesus:  full of poetic, symbolic language that our Church just luxuriates in.
Here’s the challenge...what is the relevance for us today?
What is the impact of Jesus’ “hour of Glory” for us in this 21st century.
I think it is powerful.
We must root ourselves in our understanding of salvation.  
At the heart, salvation is the God given freedom to do what is right and good.
It is the capacity to do what is good, unhindered by our emotions or the coldness of logic, and in spite of circumstances and consequences.
We choose to do what is good.  We want to do the good. That is freedom.


There is an ancient question, an ancient challenge that has been thrown at Christians:  Explain how such a Good God permits such evil.
A wise teacher told me the answer to this, but did not explain the answer...he left us to contemplate it (which is why he was wise).
God does not permit it, nor desire it.  God’s answer to the evil, to the badness that happens is the death and resurrection of his beloved Son.
Remember last week’s Gospel, “God so loved the world that God gave his only Son to save the world”
Jesus speaks of the ruler of this world, that the ruler of this world will be driven out.
Who is this ruler?
I think it is the human ego.
We all tend to think that we are the rulers of this world.
Our selfishness and self-centeredness leads to such evil.
Think of the story of Adam and Eve, they chose  to do it on their own and reject God.

We repeat this original sin all the time.
It is through our ego, our self-centeredness that we kill, we abort, we discriminate; there is violence against women, against the weak, sick and elderly; there is poverty, there is sickness; there is war, terrorism and all the other forms of extermination of “enemies”.
We are so focussed on our profit and things, we are willing to poison our air, our water and our soil, and we wonder why people are get cancers and other diseases.
We think we need to protect ourselves, so we lie, gossip, steal.
We put more energy into protecting what we think are our “Rights” than we do on helping others.
We think God permits this?
The Father’s answer again is Jesus Christ.

He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
He is the image in which we are created.
He is the freedom of God made real.
Which means he is us, and we are him; he is the way we are to be, so that the evil of this world diminishes.
He is the path of humility.
He is the way of dying to self, and giving for others.
Consider the people of Northern Ireland, decades spent in horrible violence:  believers of Jesus Christ killing each other.
What made the difference and ended the violence?  They finally began to see each other as human persons; they began to see beyond their politics, their “nationalities”.
Peace arrived with the Good Friday accords, the day of Jesus’ hour of Glory.    Such good was done.


Think of the countless parents who willing give for their children; give away the idea of being “friends” for their kids, and actually parent them, nurturing them, helping them to know boundaries, respect, humility.  

The quiet hidden parents, working multiple jobs, so that their children can get a decent education.     So much Good is done.
Think of the couples who give of themselves for their spouses: both working together for the unity of the family; working on building relationships even when there was so much hurt.     So much good.
Or the men and women who work diligently to provide for people who lack so much; working to provide not just food, clothing and shelter, but also to help men and women build their lives so that they can live more independently.    So much good.
And all those who let go, who stopped trying to control all others and who stopped blaming others, and worked on themselves, and found peace in their lives.      Goodness.
Jesus’ hour of Glory is our hour of Glory.
We are reminded of this in our Eucharist, in which we participate in and make real the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
It is the way, the answer to the evil in our world
It is so very relevant for us this day.

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