Fifth Sunday of Lent (B)

Ez 37:12-14
Ps 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
Rm 8:8-11
Jn 11:1-45 or Jn 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45

Archaeologists have unearthed thousands of stone tablets—surviving evidence of the life in the ancient Near East. This stone record gives us a glimpse of the cultures that are the background of the Bible. Hello, I'm Father Greg Friedman, with the “Sunday Soundbite” for the Fifth Sunday of Lent.

Especially helpful to Biblical studies has been the record of covenants—agreements made between merchants, traders or rulers in biblical times. By studying these business or legal relationships, we can understand the religious concept of covenant—our Scriptural theme all through this Lent.

In today’s first reading, however, the prophet Jeremiah wants us to move from covenants recorded on stone to another kind of covenant. Jeremiah is thinking of the Ten Commandments, written on stone by God and given to Moses. Now God tells the prophet that henceforth the covenant will be written in the hearts of the people. They will know their God with the intimacy of a lover. They will respond from the heart.

Lent is about renewing our Baptism. In Baptism God has “written on our hearts” a personal, covenant relationship with Jesus Christ. In today’s Gospel Jesus refers to his own act of self-giving, in the beautiful image of the grain of wheat, which dies in order to allow new life to grow. In the same passage he invites his followers to imitate him in that selfless act of love.

In these final weeks of Lent, let us seek to respond to that covenant invitation.

Scripture:

• I will put my spirit in you that you may live (Ezekiel 37:14a)

• More than sentinels wait for the dawn, let Israel wait for the LORD. (Psalm 130:6b,5a)

• But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive (Romans 6:10)

• “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them,“Untie him and let him go.” (John 11:43,4)

Reflection:

•How does faith in Jesus change your life?

•Have you ever had a life-giving experience? What was the cause and result?

•How do you experience the daily presence of Jesus in your life?

For the Word of God became a human being that we may become God; and he manifested himself in a body, that we might gain an idea of the invisible Father; and he endured insolence from men, that we might inherit immortality. (Athanasius)