3/18/18

Homily for March 18



Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent
Scriptures for today's Mass

Audio for homily




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.
Those who love their life will lose it
while those who hate their life in this world
will keep for eternity.

Mysterious Jesus-talk?   Spiritual buzz-words?   Biblical jargon?
Not really!  I see this kind of stuff all the time
- and I never fail to stand in awe of what I see.

• I see it in parents who would gladly take on themselves
their children’s pain, problems and disappointments
to spare their kids those very burdens.

• I see it in spouses who give themselves for their beloved
for years, for decades - for a lifetime -
sometimes spending many years
caring for a spouse in declining health or chronic illness.

• I see it in the stamina of people whose lives have not turned out
just as they as hoped and dreamed
and yet they stay the course, they move on, they move ahead,
sometimes after staggering disappointment and pain
living the life that’s theirs and making the best, with God’s help
of whatever life has brought them - or denied them.

• I see it in the work of our parish St. Vincent de Paul Society
and our parish Service and Justice Committee,
the folks who organize and implement
and personally reach out to those in need right here in Concord
and in Lawrence and Boston.

• I see it in our young people who struggle against great odds
to swim against the tide of what everyone else is doing,
striving for honesty, integrity and fidelity to Christ and his word.

• I see it in divided, broken families where some members give their all,
at no small personal price to reconcile and live peaceably
with others who resist and reject
their sincere and well-intentioned efforts.

• I see it in grandparents who sacrifice much of their retirement
to take on a second career of parenting,
caring for grandchildren whose parents need help.

• In the parish I see it in the minority of folks
who are just as busy as the majority
and yet selflessly take responsibility for nurturing and developing
parish life and its ministries.

• I see it on Dan Silva’s Facebook page,
Dan’s a parishioner deployed with the military to Serbia.
I see it in how he and thousands of others
have left family and safety and jobs behind
to defend you and me and work to keep peace in the world.

• I see it in the young people in our parish
who give their Saturdays to feeding the poor in Boston
or a week of their summer vacation to work on a service trip.

• I see it in our parishioners who volunteer to visit every week
at the prison at the rotary to share their faith with the inmates
whom so many dismiss and demean with scorn.

• I see it in our parishioners who spend an hour or two on Sunday
bring Communion to those who can’t come to Mass:
the homebound or those in nursing homes or the hospital.

• I see it in the efforts of parents who work so hard to share their faith
with sons and daughters who don’t respond,
who refuse even to respect the faith their parents treasure.

• I don’t always see it but I often hear how many people in our parish
in more ways than we might imagine,
reach out quietly, selflessly and behind the scenes,
to care for neighbors in need and in trouble.

I see all of this and I see it all the time -
and I never fail to stand in awe of what I see.
And what is it that I see?

I see grains of wheat falling to the ground and dying
and producing much fruit.
I see those willing to prefer their neighbors’ needs and wants to their own
and who thus are keeping the life God gave them for eternity.

What Jesus teaches about of the grain of wheat
is what we see in the lives of these loving and generous people.

If I keep, if I safeguard, if I protect my life for myself -
well, that's the seed that doesn’t fall to the earth and die.
But if I allow my self-interest to die, on behalf of others -
that’s the seed at bears fruit and enjoys a harvest that has no end.

How much should I give of myself? How generous need I be?
How much dying to self does this entail?
Good questions… hard questions…

Most of the things I mentioned earlier
are deeds done by many generous people,
believers and non-believers alike.
But those who follow Christ
are summoned to an even deeper generosity.
Especially in Lent, we remember how selflessly Jesus, like a seed,
fell to the earth and died - that we might have life…
At the very least the Lord calls us to consider our lives as seeds,
seeds that need to die
before they can truly live and give and prosper.

Every week we gather beneath the sign of the Cross,
the image of Jesus, the seed sown for us,
the seed who died so that we might live...

At this table, this altar, in the bread and the cup of the Eucharist,
he nourishes us with his sacrifice
that we might have the love and courage to bury our self-interest
and give ourselves over to the needs of others.

Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat.
But if it dies, it produces much fruit.

If we keep our lives for ourselves, we will lose them.
If we lose our lives in love and service of others,
we will preserve them for eternal life.

The choice, and it’s not always an easy one,
the choice is ours.




 

     
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