Fifth Sunday of Lent

✠ | CLICK TO VIEW TODAY'S READINGS

As we move into this Fifth Week of Lent, I reflect on what a powerful experience this Lent has been for me. In many ways, this past year has felt like Lent – the entire year. Last year we entered into the pandemic lockdown after the Season of Lent had begun. Even though we celebrated Easter last year, the lonely experience of the desert seemed to be a feeling that has continued throughout the year. On Ash Wednesday this year, there was an exhausted feeling and a hope and prayer that I had that perhaps this Lent could be a time of rejuvenation and hope for our world as we prepare for Easter Sunday.

In today’s Gospel, “some Greeks” came to worship at the Passover Feast and told Philip that they wanted to see Jesus. Philip told Andrew about this and then they both went and told Jesus. Jesus responds by telling them a parable about a grain of wheat and death, telling them that he was about to die:

    “Amen, amen, I say to you,
    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.”

Many of us have had an experience of dealing with death and dying during the past year. Whether we have experienced the death a family member or friend, or whether we have experienced other losses because of the pandemic, this past year has been a time of loneliness, sadness, and loss. I know I am ready, like the Greeks in the Gospel, to see Jesus – to see Jesus, the Risen Christ that gives us life. I also know I am ready for the grain of the Pandemic to die, so that our world may again produce much fruit. As we spend our last week of Lent preparing for Palm Sunday and Holy Week, let us pray that as we enter into the passion of Jesus, that we remember the moments of own experience of passion, suffering, and death over this past year and be thankful for the new life that awaits us, the new life that God gives us in Jesus.

Br. Joseph Bach, OSF

Director of Vocations

Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn