Fifth Sunday of Lent Year B

Lent is at its peak. It should leave a deep mark on believers, at least like the Greeks from Bethesda of Galilee, who came to Jerusalem before the feast and saw what was happening around Jesus. They wanted to meet Jesus in person. They did not know that Jesus said, “And I when I am lifted from the earth, will draw them all unto me” (John 12:32).
Thus, we can already understand the parable of the wheat grain: “If the wheat grain does not fall into the ground and die, it will be left alone. But if he dies, he will bring forth great fruit. ”(John 12:24). This parable surprised the Greeks and the apostles. Jesus points out the everyday thing: sowing grain for the future harvest, but it ends with a paradox. Jesus speaks of his voluntary death, which will be the beginning of a new life for all people until the end of time.
In the parable of Jesus, Jesus expresses one fundamental truth: the heart and soul of the Christian faith and our Christian life.
Just as the future harvest is possible when the sown grain dies, so the death of Jesus is the hope of humanity for a new life. Fertility and propagation are only a property of grain sown in the ground. Jesus teaches that this vital, seemingly contradictory principle also applies in the supernatural life of grace. The martyrs in the Church are therefore compared to wheat. Tertullian says, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians.” Ignatius writes of himself as a grain of wheat that must be ground with the teeth of predatory animals: “I am the grain of God, and the teeth of wild beasts grind me, that I may become the pure bread of Christ.”
(M. L., The Whole Year with the Saints, Rome 1988, p. 838)

The Church’s history teaches the great things that they were born only when people were willing to die for their ideals, God.
Jesus’ example and words: “If anyone serves Me, let him follow me! And where I am, there will also be my servant. He who will serve me will be honored by the Father ”(John 12:26) is a challenge not to spare oneself in the service of God and to others. The assassinated US President said in an inaugural speech: “Don’t ask what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.”
In selfless service to God and neighbor, one can only see true love. Jesus does not shy away from the service of love; on the contrary, he says, “For this very hour have I come. Father, glorify your name! ”(John 12: 27-28) During Lent, the Church reminds us of the words then spoken responding to Jesus’ words:“ And there came a voice from heaven, saying, 12.28)

The words of the gospel are inseparable. Just as a Christian cannot choose only what he likes, what suits him when he wants to do God’s will, it has never been popular to talk about voluntary dying, or even that we should not love life. And so, it is not today. And is there anything else going on yesterday, today, and tomorrow? When people do not suffer, don’t sick, do they fail, do not die? Every day it pays to give up, to limit, to forget… Even if one does not want to lose, one loses. If a student wants to acquire knowledge, he must study. That is why he often gives up many pleasant moments, pastimes. And later, when he learns what love is for the other person, he renounces himself, his will, comfort for the other person. When he wants to get something, he works, he tries, and is it not dying?
The gospel of the killing of wheat grains gives the believer courage, strength, and joy because when he lives his life by doing the will of God, loves God, his neighbor, and himself, he must not mourn, suffer, sacrifice, work, and strive, out of love. Faith in God gives him the certainty that everything a person does out of love for God has meaning, purpose, value. A germ, a stalk from the dying wheat grains, and finally, a new grain grows in the class. The resurrection replaces Jesus’ death and, at the end of time, the second coming of Christ, the King of the universe, who separates the good from the bad, the righteous from the unjust. Faith in God moves believers to die to the natural world, the body, to renounce the devil so that by fulfilling the will of God, believers deserve the kingdom of God as a reward from God.
Everyone must act appropriately in his freedom and reason. One in marriage, another in the state of consecrated life, and another as single. However, all in the highest quality of a relationship with God. God must take precedence over the created world. Spiritual before physical.

The meaning of all renunciation is: to have eternal life after life on earth. Every man, believing and unbelieving, suffers and renounces, with the difference that the believer has God’s goal, eternal life. By accepting the words about the wheat grain, as Jesus teaches, the believer is freed from fear, and even more so, he has a greater commitment to the things of God.
We are convinced of the truth of the words by many examples from the environment and history. When the heathen of the first Christians sentenced to death saw singing into the Roman Colosseum, they asked, “What is this teaching?” Which God gives such strength? We know from history what respect, attention, and seriousness the monks, hermits, believers, religious, men, and women, young and old, lived their lives with Christ. They died to the world, and yet they enriched it more as if enjoying the gifts of the world. They did not understand them, mocked them, and blunted them, and yet for many, they became power, light, salt. Their blankets and life have enriched the world more, made it more beautiful, happier than other works done without God.

Those who have dedicated themselves to God have renounced their children, yet their spiritual fatherhood and motherhood have fulfilled their mission. Parents who have embraced every child God has given them have certainly done more than those who have not allowed their child ever to say a father, a mother, and today they cry in romantic movies, go for walks with dogs and cats, and wait to stop some social worker.
How would we react today if the Gentiles, the Greeks of Bethesda of Galilee, turned to us as apostles with the words, “Would we like to see Jesus?” (John 12:21) What would we ask for in Holy Mass? But the world is not only calling us but begging us! An example of life awaits.

The beginning catechist remembers how he once found a card on his chair on the table in the choir: “We would like to see Jesus” (John 12:21). He spoke and acted so that everyone he met, not only students but also colleagues, would share in his love for God. And what about the team? It was hard for him to accept. Today, students and teachers cannot imagine a school without it. And he? He thanks God that someone gave him a card with the words, “We would like to see Jesus” (John 12:21).

So, little is enough, and fasting time will enrich many. The commitment to fasting in the family of “keeping one’s eyes open to Jesus” led everyone to enrich each other. A challenge for us too.