TIME REQUIRED

SUNDAY, MARCH 17, 2024

The Fifth Sunday of Lent

To appreciate a great painting, you cannot simply glance at it as you walk through an art gallery. You need to stop and notice its composition, the use of colors, the interplay of light and shadow, and the technique of the artist.

 

To appreciate a celebrated novel, you need to do more than quickly skim through its pages. You need to spend time with the text and pay attention to the movement of the plot, the development of the characters, and the skill of the author.

 

To appreciate a famous piece of music, you cannot just have it playing in the background as you concentrate on something else. You need to carefully listen to the melody, the rhythm, the lyrics, and the instrumentation, and notice the way the piece affects you emotionally.

 

To truly appreciate something, you need to spend time with it. This also applies to the scripture readings proclaimed at Sunday Mass. To appreciate these readings, we need to do more than just listen to them as they are read. We need to spend time with them.

 

The readings this Sunday contain words that may be particularly worth our time and attention.

 

In the Gospel (John 12:20-33), Jesus tells Philip and Andrew, “Amen, amen, I say to you, 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.”

 

With these words Jesus refers to his coming passion and death that would lead to his resurrection and our salvation. His death would bear fruit.

 

If we spend time with these words, we may come to understand they may also refer to our need to die to sin so that we might produce the fruit of holiness.

 

A further appreciation can bring us to recognize ourselves as the fruit to which Jesus refers: We are the fruit that has blossomed from the wood of the cross that, in the resurrection of Jesus, became the tree of life.

 

If we spend time reflecting on our First Reading (Jeremiah 31:33-34), we may come to appreciate that through Jesus, we are the people of that new covenant that God promised to make with his people. As we are reminded at every Mass during the consecration, “This is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant.”

 

That reading also speaks of God’s promise to place his law in the hearts of his people. God has done just that through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit who directs us in the ways of holiness. As Jesus tells us, “When he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth” (John 16:13).

 

The more we spend time with the scripture readings, the more we appreciate their message, the more we appreciate what the Lord has done for us, and the more we appreciate the dignity that is ours as children of God.

 

It takes time to truly appreciate the Word of God!

 

© 2024 Rev. Thomas Iwanowski