FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT, Third Scrutiny of the Elect
Also Read: Mass Readings for 21 Mar 2021
First Reading: Jeremiah 31: 31-34
The Happy Forecast!
The days are coming says the LORD, when there will be no more need to tell people to know the LORD! How truly amazing those days will be!! When Every man, woman, and child will already be in the LORD! Amen!
That day, The LORD will put His law within us and write it on our hearts!! (v.33) How truly wonderful that day would be true! Just the thought of this day makes one delightedly hopeful of the future! On such ironically gloomy days, the mere mention of these events might seem unbelievable. But to the faithful disciple, this augurs the arrival of the eternal world of Justice, Truthfulness, and Goodness! We who thus speak now will be mocked at for sure! – Fear not; for Noah too was mocked in like fashion!
Our Ark is our Mother Church, whose foundations have been laid down in our hearts through JESUS Christ’s Death and Resurrection! Therefore, we the Believers look forward with joy to the Prospect of this new covenant and the new world that the Good LORD has promised us today!
Amen!
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 51: 3-4, 12-13, 14-15
The Pardoning Petition
This most famous psalm of penitence; serves us as a reminder about our transgressions and justifies our punishment! Yet God in his unfathomable love and mercy restores us to salvation! We do not add one iota of significance to GOD the Almighty Father; when we perform any works of mercy! – In fact, these are merely our response to GOD’S supreme Love for us! He asks us to repay him in our neighbor; in whom he is as present as, HE is in Us! Amen!
Second Reading: Hebrews 5: 7-9
Reverent Submission
The priest makes the offering every day, but Christ our Eternal High Priest has made the ultimate sacrifice for us once and for all! -Therefore we are Redeemed! “Reverent Submission” (v.7) -this phrase stands out today as a beacon for us travelers! Do we show reverence to GOD? Are we submissive in our behavior to him? Christ modeled this life of reverent submission for us! We are to live like him like sons of the Highest God and King – in Reverent Submission to The King and not Cowering to the Deceitful!! Amen!
Gospel: John 12: 20-33
The Wheat that Dies!
“Very Truly I tell you unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit.” (v.24)
“Whoever serves me must follow me and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.” (v.26)
As we prepare ourselves for the Holy Week commencing with the Palm Sunday next week; we are reminded today by Christ himself of the impending event! At this point, Christ already has had the anointing of his feet (John 12:1-8)! He proclaims there about the future use of the remaining nard! (John 12:7) Thereby, prophesying his own death and burial! The subsequent verses (John 12:12-19) reveal HIS Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem during the festival. It is as part of this festival that the Greeks had arrived there and had sought to see JESUS! We are told in the later verses not included in the reading today that Christ had departed from there and hid from them! (John12:37)
But today’s gospel focuses on Christ’s description of HIS End! (v.27-33) Yet, as he shares the analogy of the wheat grain(v.24), we are reminded of the purpose of his journey! – The death of the grain brings forth much fruit. This is food for the hungry and life for the starving! Is Christ our food? Do we get our nourishment from him? Are we willing to stand in reverent submission to GOD’S Will! ( Heb 5:7) So that dying to our worldly nature we may rise to our divine self!
“Where I am, there will my servant be also.”(v.26) Where is Christ? Are we serving HIM? If we truly do serve HIM, we will know Where HE is!! It is our heart that is tested for its sincerity, not the works we perform! ‘Cause, we could ‘perform’ to a gallery and yet be unbelieving like the Greeks.
Then Christ tells us that the voice that spoke in verse 28, was a sign from GOD! (v.30) -So that the people gathered there might believe! Would we believe, had we been at the festival that day? May we Believe, Repent, and Glorify GOD! Amen!
Help us O LORD to be vigilant and steady in faith! Mother Mary Pray for us, Amen! Thank You, LORD, Praise GOD!
