5th Sunday of Lent (Fr. Simham)
TO GAIN SOMETHING WE NEED TO FORGO SOMETHING
Few years back when I was travelling to tourist place in India , I had a young couple travelling with me for their holidays or honeymoon. It was a long nine or ten hour’s journey in the train. To kill the time they bought a pack of cards. And they were playing a game called “Gin Rummy”. You know the game? It is a game where each one is given ten card and is asked to make sets in groups of same numbers or in sequence. Anyway, what I want to tell you is that the girl was winning all the time and the young man was losing. After restraining myself for almost an hour, I just started to peep into to his cards to know why he was losing. ‘My Goodness, it was horrible game. He was getting good card which will match his sequence or his grouping but he was just throwing them away.’ As I was wondering why he was doing that, he just turned towards me and smiled. That suggested to me that he was actually throwing the game away for a purpose. After sometime the girl was so happy to win all the games and she just hugged and kissed him, and I am sure they would have a wonderful holiday.
Friends, if you observe here, the young man was losing the game but he was winning her heart. This is what seems to be the life principle of Jesus as it is suggested in the gospel today. He seems to say “To win the hearts, never mind losing the game. To gain something never mind losing something.” Let me explain.
In the gospel today (John 12:20-30) Jesus tells his disciples a short parable about the nature of seeds to explain the spiritual significance of his own death and resurrection. A) Seeds cannot produce new life unless they die. Wheat has to annihilate itself in the earth before it can grow and produce fruit. So also only when Jesus dies on the cross there will be new life or redemption to the whole humanity. He has to die for our sins, then only we will have new life in him. This is the only way or the best way of giving new life to the world dead in sin. Jesus knew that the only way to victory over the power of sin and death was through the cross. He chooses it willingly
B)Jesus also knew that the only way to reverse the curse of our first parents’ disobedience is his obedience to the Father’s will. His willingness to go to the cross and death to defeat death once and for all. Dying to his will and accepting the Father’s will is the way to salvation. Hence he prayed in Gethsemane “Father if it is possible take this cup away from me, yet not as I will but let your will be done.”
C)Seed when it annihilates itself it is no longer visible as a seed but it lives in every branch and every leaf. So also Christ through his death and resurrection has given new life to us and also lives in and through us. Hence St. Paul said those famous words “It is no longer I who live, but is Christ who lives in.” So he was primarily intending to teach the disciples about his own death. How he is going to live even after his death through and in the community of believers.
Now based on his own life principle he also gives some instructions to his disciples. He says “Anyone who loves his life will lose it; but anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” It means the same thing what I told you already at the beginning. ‘To gain something you need to forgo something. To live for something you have to die for something.’ In spiritual life ‘to live for the Lord you have to die to the world. It may be a daily dying to the self by overcoming a million petty urges and desires.
In married life or relationships too the same principle applies. How many relationships are falling or breaking, just because people are not willing to die to their egos; their pride, their prejudices? Speaking of the married relationships the scriptures say “They are no longer two but one. They become one” There are no longer tow I-s but one. Often relationships don’t last long because there is clash of egos, personalities, opinions etc. The ‘I’ of each don’t die.
Sometimes our egos are so strong even God has to bow to our egos. He has to be what we want him to be. There are so many denominations in the church may be because we want or see God as we want to see him.
In our family life we want others to be what we want them to be. But we don’t make any effort to be what others like us to be.
I remember we had to settle a family dispute which has come up to divorce just after an year of marriage. After talking the both the parties concerned for hours, trying to go deep into the problem and finding out how it all started we were surprised to find that it all started with a coffee-cup which the daughter in law broke for which Mother-in-law wanted an apology. Daughter-in-law refused to apologise because it was an accident not a purposeful act. It snow-balled in to involving families leading up to divorce. Thank God we were able solve the problem. If someone are to kill their ego there would not have been such a disaster. No, we can’t let go. That’s the problem.
But Jesus says ‘Let go. Look at me. I was willing to let go of my equality with God. I was willing to let go of my own life for you. Let go. Die to yourself, you will gain more in life. Amen
Fr. Showreelu Simham