[__ver-03__] SUNDAY 21 March 2021, 5th Sunday Lent [5th Sunday Lent •• Jeremiah 31:31-34 •• Psalm 51 •• Hebrews 5:7-9 •• + John 12:20-33 •• ]
Title: Can you keep a secret?
[__00__] Can you keep a secret? In The Big Bang Theory
TV show, Sheldon – 1 of characters has
difficulty keeping a secret. When asked to do so, he says the following:
Sheldon Cooper:
You must release me from my oath. I can't keep your secret, Penny. I'm
going to fold like an energy-based de novo protein in conformational space...
like a Renaissance triptych... like a cheap suit.
Then, Sheldon is asked:
Why is it so hard for you to keep one little secret?
Sheldon:
I'm constitutionally incapable. That's why I was refused clearance for a
very prestigious government research fellowship at a secret military
supercollider located beneath a fake agricultural station 12.5 miles southeast
of Traverse City, Michigan…. Which you did not hear about from me.
[__00-a__] So,
Sheldon is bursting emotionally to reveal secrets, what only he knows.
In
the Gospel, this SUNDAY, a a secret is being revealed and it’s not only "nature of the secret” that is important but also the “nationality of the listeners”to
whom the secret is revealed and told.
This is the secret which is either not well known or not
yet well understood that Jesus our Lord & Savior would be giving up his
life that he would be betrayed by a somone close to him (Judas Iscariot) and
would be arrested, would be handed over to the judge and civil authorities,
would be put to death and die.
Oh, and by the way… this is all going to be for the proclamation
of God’s love and mercy.
In last Sunday’s Gospel, we heard the famous verse [John 3:16]
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that all who believe in
him might not perish but might have eternal life. [John
3:16].
And, those words were spoken
in secret under the cover of
night / darkness to Nicodemus the Pharisee. Was Nicodemus changed the “secret”
– was he prompted share this Good News with others. Perhaps, he was like
Sheldon on BBT and could not keep a secret.
But, in last Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus not super-precise or
explicit about his actual demise in other words about his death, how his public
“ancient TV ratings” as a hero and healer is going to decline into one who is
now seen as a villain, as betraying God and blaspheming. Stay tuned: Holy Week
starts with Palm Sunday on March 28, next week. Check your local listings.
[__00-b__] This
Sunday, Jesus ∑ summarizes the “nature
of the secret” this way:
“The hour
has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
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. 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. The Father will honor whoever serves me.” (John 12: ___)
[__00-c__] So,
the nature of the secret is that in Jesus’ suffering and in our own suffering
and sacrifice, there is something redeeming, something good, something
potentially energizing.
And,
of course we are totally
logical & rational when
we reject that idea, when we fear suffering and fear the loss of our status,
strength, or stability, whether physically or financially or emotionally.
Yet, the message of the Gospel is that there is something
to be gained even by what we lose, in fact we gain eternal life.
By losing or giving up certain things, such as during these
40 days of Lent – during any period of sacrifice, we can become more free,
liberated.
I read this about our “Transformation in Christ” (Dietrich
von Hildebrand, p. 248) - that’s the
book title –
“that certain moments of suffering actually increase the
range of freedom.”
For example, consider the suffering we may endure in order
to forgive someone who has hurt us. It seems to cause us pain to forgive the
other person from our heart.
Maybe this happened to you before, is happening right now
or is going to happen someday.
You or I may be called to forgive someone we hold in a
really low place in our mind/heart.
But, once we forgive, it allows us to have more compassionate and merciful not just to this 1 person but people in general.
This forgiveness journey is like the burying of the seed in
the earth. You and I are called to die each die to ourselves and rise to new
life, to be the seed that is buried in the ground.
That’s the nature
of the secret.
[__00-d__] What about the “nationality
of the listeners” to this secret?
We are told that some Greeks or Greek speaking people had
come to see Jesus.
And, in the Gospel/ancient world, these Greeks symbolize
not just one ethnic group of tourists with a visa to stop in, take a selfie
with Jesus and see the sights in Jerusalem.
The Greeks of the Gospel really represent people
everywhere.
Greece and the culture of Greece is very influential in the
Mediterranean and in the world.
This endures today. In the study of Catholic theology,
every theological candidate – every future religious sister or brother or
priest – who takes theology – must be schooled for a year or more in Greek
philosophy including Plato and Aristotle.
St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas – in particular – were
extremely well educated in Plato and Aristotle. They endeavored to integrate
the Gospel with Greek philosophy to understand God’s Word better.
And, while Plato himself is not a Christian, the “Platonic
ideal“ that there is a person consists of both a spirit and body is very much a
part of St. Thomas Aquinas’ theology.
Also, the adoption and acceptance of the Good News in
Greece – we see this in the N.T. letters
to the Corinthians, to Philippians – that the Gospel is being shared with the
whole world and that Jesus is the Savior of the whole world.
The Gospel today reminds us of promise and the nature of a
secret that is not yet well understood, one that we may also struggle to
understand.
One that we are also trying not only to learn
intellectually but to live.
Many of us pray in secret for family members, friends, even
people we have difficulty with, we pray and sacrifice for them in ways that
others do not notice.
In this way, the Gospel is not only part one nation or nationality but goes out to all
the world through you and through me.
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