A Heart Renewed
Fifth Sunday of Lent
Jeremiah 31:31–34 / Psalm 51:12a / Hebrews 5:7–9 / John 12:20–33
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Reflecting on the Word
By Rev. James A. Wallace, C.Ss.R.
One of the earliest pictures of Jesus I can remember portrayed him at prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. I still see his hands, clasped tight. They spoke to me of an inner struggle long before I knew about his words, “Father, all things are possible to you. Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will” (Mark 14:36). More than any other scene in the Gospels, this one brought home what it meant to say Jesus was truly man.
Today’s Gospel has been called John’s version of the agony in the garden. The word agony (agonia in Greek) means struggle, and we can hear the struggle in Jesus’ awareness that “the hour” he has spoken of before in John’s Gospel, beginning at Cana, has finally arrived. It is the hour of his being lifted up—the hour of both his glory and his crucifixion. It is why he came into the world, and yet we hear him say, “I am troubled.” We hear him wrestling with himself, asking for release from the hour, but then recognizing that it holds “the purpose for which I came.”
Hebrews affirms this when it says “he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence” (5:7). He was able to bear the suffering and become the source of eternal salvation for all who listen to him and follow in his steps.
Consider/Discuss
- Do you desire a new heart? What would be different about it?
- How do Jesus’ words about the seed falling into the ground, dying, and only then producing fruit challenge you? What needs to die in you?
Responding to the Word
Loving God, give us a new heart in these final days of Lent, a heart that carries within it your loving imprint, that we may always know your will and yield to it, even when it calls for a dying of some kind. In such dying, may we trust that you will bring forth new life.