Jeremiah 31:31-34 Psalm 51 Hebrews 5:7-9 John 12:20-33
How is your heart? Because of the Fall, we know that “the heart is deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9). As we get closer to the end of Lent, we are called today to a “heart exam,” a spiritual EKG. The goal of Lent, indeed the goal of the whole Christian life, is to develop an obedient heart, as Jesus had.
JEREMIAH
Our first reading is a very significant Old Testament passage. Jeremiah prophesies a “new covenant” that will bring forth a new people of God, with a new law within them, producing a heart that will be obedient to the Lord. This is, in fact, a promise of the Holy Spirit – the only way we can have an obedient heart toward God.
The first readings of the Sundays of Lent have all recounted God’s covenants in the Old Testament: with Noah, Abraham and Moses (Ten Commandments). Last week we read about the renewal of the covenant after the Babylonian captivity and today Jeremiah foretells a “new covenant,” so that all will know the Lord, “from the least to greatest.”
The Responsorial, Psalm 51, is the well-known penitential psalm Miserere. Our cry is, “Create a clean heart in me, O God.” How much we need a new heart and a new spirit!
GOSPEL
In the gospel for this last Sunday before Holy Week, Jesus speaks prophetically of his death: “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to myself.” Jesus compares his death to a grain of wheat dying and being buried in the earth. Only in that way can it produce much fruit. He challenges us, his servants and followers, to do likewise by being willing to die to self and live for him.
John’s gospel does not include the agony in the garden, but Jesus’ words here are reminiscent of his prayer in Gethsemane. “I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? ‘Father save me from this hour’? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.” In other words, “Not my will, but yours be done.”
Jesus also speaks of judgment: “Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.” Earlier in his ministry, Jesus said, “For judgment I came into the world” (John 9:39). Jesus delivers a judgment on sin, a sinful world, and the author of sin, the devil, who is called here “the ruler of this world.” We are told that “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). He did just that, once and for all, by shedding his blood on the cross and rising again from the dead.
HEBREWS
The second reading seems to allude to Jesus’ agony in the garden when it says, “he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.”
In a somewhat mysterious passage, Hebrews says that Jesus “learned obedience from what he suffered.” This emphasizes the humanity of Jesus, who had to learn the way all humans learn. Jesus, as man, had an obedient heart to the will of the Father.
WHAT IS IN YOUR HEART?
In Scripture the term "heart" is used to refer to the ruling center of a person, the "home of one's personal life," the spring of one's desires and actions. So one's heart is really one's self. The word of the Lord promises to grant a new heart to those who sincerely want it. As we near the end of our Lenten observance, may we ask for an obedient heart and yield to the Lord’s Spirit as he works to transform our hearts.