Homily for the Week of March 29, 2009

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT B 2009
First Reading: Jeremiah 31:31–34
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 51:3–4, 12–13, 14–15
Second Reading: Hebrews 5:7–9
Gospel: John 12:20–33
USA Today had a news article this week about a 12-year-old boy who drowned in Henan province, China. People drown every day, but the saddest part of his death was that 10 people stood watching. The onlookers did nothing until the boy's father offered enough money to make a rescue. The father got someone to agree to save his son for about $1,100, but by that time the boy had drowned.
Last week we reflected on how well we are connected to Jesus through his cross. This weekend we begin a period of time called ''Passiontide,'' the two weeks prior to Easter. During this time the Church calls us to reflect intensely on the meaning of the death of Jesus and how it affects our lives. As he often does Jesus uses a grain of wheat as a example as to how are to live or how must let ourselves die. Jesus said, "unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit."
Most of you have seen a stalks of wheat. In fact, many of you may have even harvested them. The head of the stalk of wheat is made up of many tiny grains of wheat. Each little grain of wheat has a hard outer shell which protects it. Deep inside the grain of wheat, there is the plant that is waiting to grow.
Unless the grain of wheat is put into the earth, covered with soil, and permitted to die, it remains just a grain of wheat. But, if it is placed into the earth, and if it dies, its hard outer shell splits open, and the tiny plant within begins to grow. Given the right conditions, the one grain of wheat can produce another stalk with many more grains of wheat. From the death of one grain of wheat comes the life of many grains of wheat, and of course of all that comes from wheat.
Each of us could be compared to grains of wheat. We have a hard outer shell that we have built around ourselves to protect us. We have developed ideas and notions which we are afraid to let go. Some of these might be the way we practice our faith--unwilling to change even when we are clearly convinced that we should; the fear of death; trusting no one; unable to apologize to any one; unable to ever admit that we might be wrong. All of these and many more are ways we have of viewing and controlling our world. They are outer shells that lock us in, protect us and make us comfortable. But sadly, we will never grow spiritually this way. For although death is the enemy, it is also the means to everlasting life.
In the Gospel today Jesus tells us that we must die in order to live. It is only through death that we can grow. We come to realize that we are never truly alive until we learn how to die. Jesus tells us that the grain of wheat must fall to the ground and die in order to produce a new stalk with many more grains of wheat. Jesus is not telling us that we are no good unless we died this minute. Jesus is calling us to CONVERSION. This process of conversion puts us in touch with those things that bind us and hide our better selves. Once we do this, then our true self comes out. Conversion is an agreement that God has made with us, written not on stone tablets like the 10 commandments, but on our hearts where it makes a difference in the way that we live.
Spiritual conversion, however, includes our desire to follow and to die for a cause or a person. For the past many years television coverage of the war in Iraq or Afghanistan or other places has offered us the opportunity to see in real time images of what war is really like. The embedded reporters provide us with the destruction of war. They show us soldiers who are willing to give their life for a cause which our political leaders say is right. Many of you have served in the armed forces, or in law enforcement of whatever kind have responded to the call to serve for a cause greater than yourselves.
In a sense Jesus is asking each of us the same dedication. He asks us: ARE YOU WILLING TO GIVE YOUR LIFE FOR YOUR FAITH? The history of our church gives us thousands of examples of those who died rather than to deny their faith. We often call these persons martyrs. They were doing what Jesus did.
Jesus is telling us that we need discipline in those parts of our life that seem to have taken control over us. This discipline includes every aspect of our lives: in our thoughts, in our words and in our deeds. Discipline means that we do not always give ourselves what we want when we want it. Discipline means that we ask ourselves if we really need something.
Our first reading refers to discipline. We hear the prophet Jeremiah telling us that God would plant his law within us so that we would learn how to die and to grow. We are given the most consoling of promises by God: I WILL PLACE MY LAW WITHIN YOU, AND WRITE IT UPON YOU HEART; I WILL BE YOUR GOD AND YOU SHALL BE MY PEOPLE, FOR I WILL FORGIVE YOUR EVIL DOING AND REMEMBER YOUR SIN NO MORE. Could anyone have given us more consoling words?
All too often we think of spiritual discipline as simply vacuuming up the dirty spots on the carpet of the soul. Discipline or conversion really has less to do about vacuum cleaners and the soul's dirty carpets, and more to do with being in harmony with our thoughts, words and deeds. If some of these thoughts, words and deeds are not in harmony with our conscience then it destroys the harmony and peace which for which we yearn. And then, to relieve our stress, we try to find the harmony and peace in what are known as addictive behaviors.
Sin is all about violating the natural harmony of the soul. It deliberately skews the God-given interrelationships between God, self and neighbor. It slams the door of our heart in God's face. Sin builds walls to hide behind and constructs bridges that lead us away from love of ourselves, care for others, and love of God.
We need to allow our faith to be with us each day of the week, not just for the time we are in church. We need to re-examine what love means to us. If we open ourselves up to the possibility of love, we may discover the riches of other people and rise to new life. No matter where we are we are always destined to become something more than we are. On this last weekend before we launch into the holiest week of the year, God calls us break though our outer shell and remember that if we love our life too much the way it is, we may lose it. Our prayers together becomes a means to new life. Jesus gives us two options: Put him first, where he belongs, or put yourself first.