5th Sunday of Lent (Cycle B)

Jer 31:31-34                 Heb 5:7-9                 Jn 12:20-33

Arabian Knights is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. In this compilation, there is a story about the magnetic islands. These islands were so magnetic that when ships came near them they were wrecked. They were not drawn upon the rocks and dashed to pieces, nor was there any sudden explosion. These islands were simply so magnetic that they drew all the iron nails and bolts out of the ship and it fell to pieces.

Even our unsacrificing selfish minds can be compared to these magnetic islands. When our lives have been lived on a principle of selfishness, as the years go by, all our good will are sucked by our magnetic selfish mind and our life falls to pieces and comes to sorrow. One of the reason why such things happen is because we fail to cultivate an attitude of self-sacrifice.

The great Greek classical philosopher Socrates said, ‘Know thyself.’ Marcus Aurelius, the good Roman emperor who reigned from 161 to 180 A.D. uttered ‘Control thyself.’ Our Lord and master, Jesus Christ proclaimed ‘Give thyself’ and manifested himself as its model. These three very short maxims are so far considered as greatest maxims in the history of the world, which are said for the well-being of human self and society at large.

Among these three, the first two points to the well-being of the individual self, but the last one focusses on the well-being of everyone. Other-centeredness, altruism, self-sacrifice is the meaning interwoven with the last maxim, ‘Give thyself.’ Giving oneself for the well-being of the other does not mean a loss for one person and profit for the other. This is the point that is clarified by the metaphor provided by Jesus Christ in today’s gospel: “Unless a wheat grain falls into the earth and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies it yields a rich harvest” (Jn 12:24). There is neither a loss nor a profit, but what remains is an inevitable process. It is an indispensable process of life.

Like the wheat grain which fully loses itself to yield a rich harvest, we are all called to live a life of sacrifice. Jesus not only said this statement to exhort his disciples to be like the grain of wheat, but also to indicate his forthcoming passion and death. That is why, before speaking about the grain of wheat, Jesus said: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified (Jn 12:23). He showed himself as the grain of wheat. The picture of the grain of wheat tells that before the glory, before bearing fruit or before the seed could be borne, death is a necessity. Jesus death on the cross was a necessity. By this, Jesus made a deep imprint about the inevitability of his death.

Life will not offer any gain without certain amount of pain and loss. It is the pressed grapes that yields the wine. It is the squeezed olives that yield the oil. It is the crushed flowers that yield perfume. In only giving up something, something is received.  This is the universal TRUTH and PRINCIPLE. The mechanism of life ensures that no one escapes from this principle. All have to pass through this principle in order to have life.

The journey of a seed or grain is a painful path. First, it has to fall into the ground. Then, it has to become one with the soil by losing its outer shell. It has to bear all kinds of compressions that fall above it. It has to force itself to tear the soil and travel downward, and then has to grow upward by sprouting small buds upon the soil. It is a long journey which involves discomfort and uneasiness. Similar to the path of the seed or the grain, each Christian should journey towards the glory of eternal life. Jesus Christ is the best replica of that seed or grain of wheat.

When saying about Jesus Christ, it is said:

He had no servants, yet they called Him MASTER,

No degrees, yet they called Him TEACHER,

No medicine, yet they called Him HEALER,

No army, yet the kings feared Him,

He won no military battles, yet He conquered the world,

He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him,

He was buried in a tomb yet He lives today,

All because He did not come to live a selfish life, but to give His life as a ransom for many.

Most of us like to be receivers rather than to be losers or givers. Why? It is because we are mesmerized by the consumertic framework of mind. We live in a consumeristic world. Being unaware, we have been caught up by the consumeristic philosophy or ideology. It is this ideology that rules our mind. The consumeristic philosophy promotes the idea that: To have is to be. It means that: to affirm my presence, my existence to the other and to the world, I should have something or possess something. If I have nothing, then I am not worthy of being present in this world. The more I possess, then my existence is all the more affirmed. In order to affirm the fact of our existence, driven by the consumeristic ideology, we try our best to acquire more and more, where our mind is prone only to receive and not to lose or to give. We need to become aware of this ideology which has already taken control of us.

This consumeristic ideology need to be replaced by the ideology of Christ which states: To lose is to be. This is the crispy message of 25^th verse of today’s gospel, which is the next verse following the verse about ‘the grain of wheat’. Jesus said: Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life (Jn 12:25).

In our human life we are attached to many things. These attachments include things of necessity as well as unnecessary things. As Jesus Christ said, in order to gain life in abundance, we should be ready to lose our unnecessary attachments. But sadly, in today’s world we see people are quick to lose their convictions, principles, good deeds, morality and so many things which are essential to one’s life. On the contrary, we are called to give up our unnecessary prejudices about a person, our bad thoughts, our hardness of heart, our selfish motives, our caste barriers, our misunderstandings, etc., Humanity is slowly losing the value of sacrifice too. Let us not be one of those who have lost this great virtue of sacrifice.

Henry Ward Beecher, an American social reformer of the 19^th century and great supporter of abolition of slavery used to say: In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich. Let each one of us become rich in this sense.