A friend forwarded someone else’s entry on Facebook. It would have been the picture for today’s reflection if I could know about its source and copyright. But see it in your mind. There is a person standing in front of Jesus. The person is holding a heart. The caption above says, “It’s all I have.” The caption under Jesus says, “It’s all I want.”
As we prepare for our final week before Palm Sunday, “it’s all I have/it’s all I want” captures where our readings seek to take us.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
The context for this reading is very interesting. Jeremiah, who is still in Jerusalem, writes from there to some of the people formerly of Jerusalem who have already been exiled in Babylon. Chapters 29 and 30 tell the exiles to give up resentment and thoughts of rebellion from within Babylon. Instead, they are to “Build houses to dwell in; plant gardens, and eat their fruits. Take wives and beget sons and daughters…there you must increase in numbers, not decrease. Promote the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you, pray for it to the Lord, for upon its welfare depends your own.” (Jeremiah 29:5-9) Just before today’s reading in Chapter 31, Jeremiah tells the people they will be in exile 70 years, but there will be an end to it. Not only will their children and grandchildren return to Judea, but the day will come when belonging to God will not be a matter of Law, but of Spirit.
This, of course, points to Jesus. Jeremiah says at the end of today’s reading, “All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember it no more.”
God accomplished that for them (remember, Jesus spent the second day of the Triduum among the dead) through Jesus. The Hebrew Scripture reading reminds us that God KNEW what he was going to do during Holy Week. God knew the second person of the Trinity would die for the sins of all. He did it on purpose with full foreknowledge.
Hebrews 5:7-9
The Letter to the Hebrews, by an unknown author, makes the same point: God planned the events of Holy Week, including the great sacrifice of cruel crucifixion. Yet there is an additional perspective in this Scripture snippet: Jesus died from obedience. He cried out to ask that salvation be accomplished some other way. The Father said, “no,” and Jesus obeyed. This obedience (“not my will but yours”) made Jesus perfectly formed.
He gave his heart. The heart of God was pierced, opened. To save us all.
There could be a second picture to follow the one we began with. Jesus standing in front of a person holding out his heart. The caption might read, “It’s all I have.”
Under the person, the caption could well say, “It’s all I need.”
John 12:20-33
The conversations in today’s Gospel take place at the beginning of Holy Week–Monday or Tuesday. Jesus is in the temple area. The Greeks were probably Greek converts to Judaism, since they were in the temple area. They were curious about Jesus. They sought a proper introduction to him via disciples.
Was Jesus processing the coming crucifixion as he talked, or was he trying to prepare his disciples? Good questions. We don’t know the answers. But he gave us the heart of the heart example:
“Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.
I was curious about the use of the word “hate” here. What does it mean? The Greek word is μισεω It is written in English as “miseo.” It is the opposite of the Greek word “agape”—self-giving love.
According to some research online, miseo was something that distances or scatters. Neither miseo or agape meant feelings of love or hate. Miseo was about creating distance from, putting in pieces, or scattering—like scattering seeds.
All very interesting to me, since Jesus was talking to Greeks. As I understand the Greek word use could mean, “Unless you are willing to distance yourself from this world and its values and let your life be scattered as seeds in this world, you cannot preserve your life for eternal life.” Jesus had just talked about how a seed dies to create new life. Jesus is continuing that metaphor here.
Jesus is saying, “I’m letting my life be scattered and sown. If you are my servants and you follow me, that’s what you will do, too.
Cabrini
Some friends and I went last Sunday to see the movie, Cabrini. It is a popular, in-a-theater-near-you kind of movie about the early days in America of Mother Frances Cabrini, patron saint of immigrants. It is a movie about one woman who gave Jesus her heart—and let her life in this world be scattered and sown. I watch few movies, and a number of images from the movie have kept playing in my prayers this week: searching for children who lived in the New York sewers, conversations between Cabrini and Pope Leo XIII, determination to not only serve immigrants, but to also create cultures of equality.
Mother Cabrini gave Jesus her heart and let him sow it into an empire of hope.
As we finish our Lenten sacrifices and review what God has done in us, today’s Gospel can be a good measuring stick: Where and how do we follow Jesus to let our lives be scattered, God’s seeds of love sown?
Prayer:
Lord, sometimes it is hard for me to even imaginatively follow you those last miles into Holy Week and the Easter Triduum. As it is hard to let my life be scattered, like seed on the ground. Yet, I like to believe I have given you my heart. Lead me, guide me, to follow you now through the readings and liturgies that begin next Sunday. This week, help me prepare to set time aside to pray, to attend Triduum services, and to let myself be better formed to conform my heart to yours as I imaginatively follow you through Palm Sunday, the early dialogues of Holy Week, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.
