TIME OF A NEW COVENANT SEALED ON LOVE.
March 21, 2021
Fifth Sunday of Lent - Year B.
Readings: Jer 31:31-34; Ps 51:3-4, 12-13, 14-15; Heb 5:7-9; Jn 12:20-33.
A Swahili proverb says, “A new thing is a source of joy even
if it is sore.” And a Ghanaian proverb adds, “The wood will renew the foliage
it sheds.”
Love is the greatest sacrifice man can ever make. All that
we put as action get their meaning if they are done with love. For, without
love all is void and nothing. The passion, death, and resurrection of Christ,
if not understood as an expression of God's love becomes nothing and useless.
As Christians, we are urged to walk in the same love Jesus
had for us until sacrificing himself for our salvation. His perfect act of
charity is what this Lent invites us to imitate. For, Lent is the perfect time
of imitation of Christ. It is also the time of a new covenant. God promised to
enter into a new agreement with each one of his creatures and to transform them
from within.
The word of God today, the 5th Sunday of Lent, sets a
special emphasis on the internal movement of renewal or conversion. Our hearts,
our inner being are called to become the siege of God's new Law. Through the
prophet Jeremy, the Lord says, “See, the days are coming when I will make a new
covenant...” Here we are in those days. And the Lord insists on the fact that
this covenant will be different from all the other covenants he made with his
people. His Law will no longer be on tablets and dictated by others from
outside to us. The Law of the new covenant will be within each one of us,
written on our hearts. This law is nothing but the Law of love.
Love, we learn from the word of God is not something that
comes from outside the person, but from his heart. And love is what makes
meaningful our life and actions. Love is what leads is knowing God and others.
Without love man does not know himself, neither does he know God and his neighbor.
It was because of lack of love that Israel, as people fell into disobedience
and idolatry. Through the renewal of his covenant, God wants love to be what
directs and enlightens our lives. No one will ever tell his brothers and
sisters what is love or teach them to love. Because there is no academy or
school where one goes to learn how to love. It is from within and given by God
to all.
The Letter to the Hebrews, speaking of Jesus says: “he
learned to obey and he became source of eternal salvation.” It is actually
because of his love that Jesus obeyed the Father’s will. Love was the reason
for his self-sacrifice. He, therefore, reached perfection through that love.
In the Gospel, through the allegory of the seed that falls
in the ground and must die, the Lord Jesus tells us that perfect love requires
sacrifice. Jesus speaks of his soon coming death and resurrection as a time of
great sacrifice and renewal. In these veiled words, the Lord speaks of the
imminent Last Passover and announces the coming of his hour. The hour of the
Son of God is the hour of the new covenant and the perfect renewal. As his
followers, our part is to enter that hour and make it our own hour. Here
resounds the perfect time to truly love and be able to sacrifice ourselves for others.
While getting closer to the time where the Lord will give
his life for our life, we are exhorted to let ourselves be renewed by God's
love and love others that same way. While we live in a world that pays special
tribute to egoism, individualism, self-centeredness, and indifference, the word
of God today, reminds us that human beings fulfill their goal in life and grow
to maturity only when they are capable of genuine and selfless love, when they
can give life to others through their love. Follow Jesus Christ, amid this
world, is not an easy task. It is a journey filled with difficulties and
tribulations. It is a journey marked by the cross. But we are assured of our
progress and victory in that journey because of the one who went through it
ahead of us.
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