CATHOLIC HOMILY FOR CYCLE B 5TH LENT
by Fred Karpuk
1. Most of us have been through an event in life which filled us with EMOTION. We were AMAZED at what happened. In other words, we were STUNNED by it. For example, you loose a loved one. That can be a STUNNER. But it probably doesn’t reverberate across the nation. But how about 9/11. It was one event we can easily relate to and the world also. Older people will say the assassination of Kennedy was a STUNNER. These events had us tied up emotionally for days and years. We never dreamt that such events could ever happen. That’s why they were so shocking.
Can you think of any Positive STUNNERS? How about the night
In Berlin when the wall fell down. (11-9-89) People the world over were STUNNED to see just such a improbable event take place. The fall of communism, an ideology we feared greatly had come about.
We have Spiritual events that STUNNED us too. One that comes to my mind would have been the back to back stunning events of 1978 when John Paul I suddenly died after 30 days in office and days later the election of the John Paul II. The first non-Italian pope in 400 years.
Though we may try, STUNNING events, are hard to explain. Bur for sure the big ones changes lives and the course of history.
2. In the 1st reading, Jeremiah is TELLING his fellow Israelites, that God wants to change things. He wants to give them another chance. He wants to extend to them a NEW COVENANT. One to replace the OLD COVENANT set up between God and the Chosen People on Mt. Sinai. A Covenant that the Chosen people had never kept, because of their selfish and Idolatrous ways.
This NEW COVENANT would be written not on STONE….but on each individuals HEART where we will understand. It would be a agreement of LOVE …not of OBLIGATION. In this New Covenant, each person would give TOTALLY of himself to the other. God to His people and His people back to God.
3. But what was so STUNNING to the Israelites was how GOD would relate to them in the new covenant. It was promised that God himself would someday come to them PERSONALLY. And one of the ways this personal relationship would be expresses, was as a SPOUSE. As Jeremiah said about God, and he lived 630 BC, that the Israelites …“ broke the Old Covenant even though I was the Husband.” So the basis of this New Covenant then would be modeled on the love and affection as seen in a marriage between Husband and wife. Only this covenant would be a spousal relationship between God and Israel.
Another sign Of how this New covenant would be implemented, came to them from Isaiah in 700 BC. He promised that God would come to them in a Virgin Birth. And this child would be known as Emanuel, God with us. This personal relationship by a God for His people, had never have been even dreamt of before. So either way, whether God comes as a SPOUSE or as a BABY, the promise for this Covenant was a real STUNNER. It would change their outlook and the history of salvation forever.
4. It took 700 years for that Stunning Event to play out in the Birth of Jesus. Yet this covenant had more. As if the Incarnation, where God became man wasn’t STUNNING enough. Then came Jesus’ 3 year ministry of Teaching and Healing. STUNNING event after STUNNING event. But the most AMAZING events were to come in the final days. This Covenant had to show us that ultimate act of Personal Love by God for His people.
The setting of the Gospel is about 6 days after Jesus had RAISED
LAZARUS from the dead. And you talk about being STUNNED, the whole nation of Israel and beyond were awash with that astounding miracle. And the Scriptures have everybody pondering that event and all that had happened since. There was the dinner for Lazarus at which people just went nuts over Jesus and Lazarus. There was the fervor over pending Passover in Jerusalem with millions of pilgrims streaming in. There was the meeting of the Sanhedrin to developed its’ plan to handle this Jesus. It had a plot to Kill both Jesus and Lazarus. And adding to all this was the VERY EMOTIONAL display of the people for Jesus as he made the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. There they wanted to make Him King. You can tell the Pharisees as the religious leaders were very STUNNED. For they said….”people were now just running to Jesus.”
But what Jesus was trying to say in the Gospel was that no one understood the promise of the New Covenant. He did not come be with us for temporal reasons. So in the Gospel, Jesus teaches us some of the most important spiritual concepts of the New Covenant and what loving from the heart means.
-unless a grain of wheat falls and dies, it will not bear fruit
-he who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this
world will keep it for eternal life
-if anyone serves me, he must follow me
5. But in all of this, you know what STUNNED people the most? It was the back to back STUNNING events of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection. First Jesus their Earthly Lord and King was crucified and was now gone. Their hopes dashed. But 3 days later, they were STUNNED again. He rose from the dead. Unbelievable…you can only imagine the emotions they felt in those days. But these events captured
The essence of this New Covenant that Jesus talked about today.
6. Some STUNNING events must be explained. The second reading relates to us just how STUNNING God’s Love is. The IMPROBABLE NOTION that someone who was so guiltless or innocent had to die for our sins is just to much. Paul relates to the Hebrews, that the promise of a Personal God, so long ago by Jeremiah is fulfilled in Jesus. Not only in his birth (Incarnation) Not only in his ministry of healing and teaching. But also in His personal love that had Him die for us.
7. Today for Lent, I want to you think about how God works in our lives. Sometimes he has to STUN us to get our attention. So today think of the Spiritual side of Lent. For the moment put alms giving aside. Today forget about fasting. For some events AMAZE us so much, they stay with us forever, because they affect generation after generation.
-The Old Testament, (We need the OT to show us just how God
has always Loved us), the Christmas Story, the ministry of Jesus,
the Raising of Lazarus, the suffering & death of our Lord
and His resurrection….all have staying power if we stay
connected to His Life.
And we must understand that it is all Sacraments, but especially the Eucharist that keeps us connected to Jesus and Salvation History. As you come to communion today… think of all the STUNNING things God has done for us. Especially coming to us under the form of bread and wine. And then THANK for his PERSONAL attention.
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