5th Sunday of Lent
we are now at the fifth Sunday of Lent, with Holy Week and Easter on the horizon it is hard to think that we are going through lent at such a fast pace. It will be good to celebrate the Liturgy of holy week with people in the Church as last year the ceremonies were online with no one present in the churches. It has taken us exactly one year from the beginning of the COVID restrictions in Northern Ireland on the 18th March 2020 to where we are today and time has flown by. It has been a year in which all of us young and old have suffered in so many ways. We have been travelling along a long dark road but now the light is beginning to appear at the end of that road. We thank God that we have got through the various restrictions that COVID has brought and we pray for all those who have lost family members as a result of the pandemic.
We are an Easter People and this means that no matter how dark the darkness may be the light of Christ will light up our lives and show us the road to take as we go forward with hope and joy in our hearts as we emerge slowly from this pandemic.
In the Gospel for this weekend some Greeks ask to see Jesus. Jesus responds by saying that anyone who loves his life will lose it; to gain your life, you have to be like a grain of wheat which brings forth much fruit only by falling into the earth and dying. The seed which must die to produce a harvest is a powerful image of Jesus death. The Greeks must have been baffled. They were baffled in much the same way that we are when we listen to the stories from scripture about Jesus and all the things that he had done. The gospel goes on to tell us that a voice is heard from the cloud, as at the Transfiguration in the other gospels, but here it speaks of the ‘glory’ that will come to Jesus for giving up his life. It is in his death and resurrection that he draws all people to himself, both Jew and Greek slave and free man.
Many Learned men and women have tried to put their interpretation on the Scriptures but if we listen with open hearts and minds to the scripture readings what the word of God means to us in our lives will become apparent. For many people including me God’s presence is not often thought of at the time we say or do something but afterwards, when you look back at what has happened or what you have said you often see that the hand of God was with you at that point. I have often said things to people about situations that they were in and thought to myself where did I get that from? Then on reflection I know that what I said was right and I was inspired to say and do the right thing in the right place. As we come to the last few days of Lent as we begin to get back to normal living after coming through COVID 19 let us prepare with great intensity for Palm Sunday and the Easter Triduum and then we will really be able to enjoy the Easter feast when it arrives and don’t forget the Easter celebration lasts 40 days until Pentecost Sunday !!!
Fullerton T 