Black Hole or Tunnel?

Scripture Reflection for the fifth Sunday of Lent (March 25, 2012)

Scripture Readings:
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 51
Hebrews 5:7-9
John 12:20-33

We are approaching the end of Lent on this Fifth Sunday of the season, and today’s readings focus our attention on the great Paschal Mystery that we will begin to re-live next Sunday, with the beginning of Holy Week. Jesus says to Philip and Andrew, who tells him there are some Greeks (Gentiles, the original text makes clear) who want to “see” him, that very soon the whole world will “see” him, because he will be “glorified,” or fully revealed.

What people will see, though, is something quite different than they probably expect. Jesus will be “glorified” when he will be “lifted up” on the cross. Even though he is the Son, he still needed to undergo the transformation of death-into-life, as our second reading says. Only when Jesus does this can people really “see” him—or, again in the words of the second reading—can he be the “source of salvation.” Only when the seed dies, can abundant life begin to emerge. Only through the cross can the “new covenant” promised in our first reading be inaugurated, when everyone will “know the Lord.” Only through death comes life. This is the Paschal Mystery. This is what our God leads us to. Not into a Black Hole, but into a tunnel with light at the end.

Jesus, the second reading says, is the “source of salvation for all who obey him.” In other words, the only way that we can be saved—find the light at the end of the tunnel—is if we “follow” Jesus and are his “servants” as the gospel puts it. Only when we are willing to “lose” our life, only when we “hate” our life in this world will we preserve it. Jesus can hardly mean that we have some kind of “death wish,” or that we really despise who we are. The word “hate,” scholars say, means to “love something less,” or perhaps better, to live our lives in the perspective of what really counts. When we begin to realize that serving others and living out gospel values is what really gives meaning to our lives, we begin to experience the abundant life and joy that God puts into our hearts. When we begin to follow and serve Jesus we begin at the same time to experience the “new covenant” that Jeremiah prophecies.

Being a follower and servant of Jesus is no easy task, but it is a vocation to which all of us are invited to respond. When we are in the midst of discerning a life lived in service and self-giving we might very well say with Jesus that our souls are troubled, and we might ask, as Jesus seems tempted to say: “Father, save me from this hour.” Will there be anything left of me, or will I just be absorbed into a fathomless Black Hole? Will I find time for myself and my own interests? Will I have time for friendship and caring for my family? - But this “hour” was Jesus’ destiny, and it is very possibly our own as well. God leads us into the Paschal Mystery. God leads us to death to self and the loss of what we cling to as our life, and to “hatred” of the world. This is not a Black Hole; it is a tunnel. And the light at the end of the tunnel is overflowing, abundant, extravagant new life, where, finally, God will be our God, and we will be God’s people.

Image: Gentiles ask to see Jesus - by Tissot © 2010 Free Christ Images