NEW DAWN OF LOVE.

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March 17, 2024.
Fifth Sunday of Lent – B.

Readings: Jer 31:31-34; Ps 51:3-4, 12-13, 14-15; Heb 5:7-9; Jn12:20-33.

“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified." (Jn 12:23) "The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant..." (Jer 31:31)

An Ashanti proverb says: “However long the night, the dawn will break.” A Native American Hopi proverb adds: “Take a breath of the new dawn and make it a part of you.”

In these days, we Christians and the whole Church are like people staring, hopefully waiting for a new dawn. Reading and meditating on today's word of God, the lyrics of a reggae song from the Ivorian Reggae Star, Alpha Blondy came to my mind. The title is New Dawn. Quite very adapted to our liturgy today. He sings: "Since you told me that you love me. I did everything you asked me. Now you're gone with the dawn. I keep on wandering, wandering, wandering all alone. I keep on struggling, struggling on my own. And I'm staring straight, staring straight. Staring to the rising sun. Yes, I'm staring straight, staring straight. Waiting for the new dawn..."

Truly, these days, we are all waiting for a new dawn, a new sun that will rise through the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ. It is not only a new dawn of hope but also the seal of God's greatest love that forgives our sins and brings us back to his love. Next week, with the celebration of Palm Sunday, we will enter the Holy Week, the longest and greatest of all the weeks, because of its richness in spiritual and human work. And the liturgy today is like a kind of preparation for it.

The Catechism says: "The desire to embrace his Father's plan of redeeming love inspired Jesus' whole life, for his redemptive passion was the very reason for his Incarnation. And so he asked, "And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour." And again, "Shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given me?" From the cross, just before "It is finished", he said, "I thirst."" CCC 607.

Jesus came for this hour, and now the time has come for the fulfillment of his mission. It is the time for the new and everlasting covenant to be sealed. It is the covenant of love that each of us should keep written in our hearts.

The Prophet Jeremiah, in the first reading, foretells about it. "The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah." The Law of Love, the new covenant of the Lord is engraved in each one's heart, and no one can teach it to another one. For, God's love is offered to all. What is required from us to truly live that divine covenant of love is obedience. As the Letter to the Hebrews states, it is through obedience that Jesus learned the depth of love, and that led him to the supreme sacrifice, his death on the Cross, in order to become "the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him." As Christ's disciples, we should also learn from his obedience.

The time has truly come for that supreme sacrifice of love made in obedience. All the signs are now gathered. The Lord himself affirms it: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified." For, God has a plan for the salvation of humanity. It will open us to a great joy upon all the earth. That will be the time of great and everlasting fulfillment. And so, there will be a new dawn of love for our humanity.

Like Jesus, we are urged to let the supreme love of God devour us until the last, up to giving up our own lives. For, that is the only way to benefit the eternal life. The Lord says: "Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life." It is a call to die on ourselves and embrace life in Christ. That is the only way to glory. He who refuses to die cannot live. As says in the proverb, "he who is afraid of death does not live, he just survives." So, we are urged to embrace life. As Marcus Aurelius once wrote, “It is not death that a man should fear, but rather he should fear never beginning to live.” If the inevitable future continually paralyzes your mind, you are not living in the present and enjoying each day as it comes.

A new dawn is opening up for each one of us. Each new day is a sequel of a wonderful life filled with God’s supreme love. May we enter that love, and special this coming Holy Week in faith, obedience, and love.

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