Fr. Jeff’s Weekly Homily

5th Sunday of Lent
April 2, 2006

READING 1: Jeremiah 31:31-34
No longer will they have to teach their friends and family how to know the Lord, All, from the least to greatest, shall know me, says, the Lord, for I will forgive their evil doing and remember their sin no more.

Psalm 51
Create a clean heart in me, O God.

READING 2: Hebrews 5: 7-9
In the days when Jesus was in the flesh, 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.

GOSPEL: John 12:20-33
Some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee , and asked him, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “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. “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. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.” The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder; but others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come for my sake but for yours. Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.

A Gator fan had prepared to do some major work around his home this weekend. He bought paint and had several gallons stacked up in the garage. This week, one of his friends invited him to go to the final four in Indianapolis to cheer for the Gators. While he was still on the phone, a neighborhood teenager knocked on his door and asked if he had any work he like done. Our Gator fan took this as a sign from God and hired the teen on the spot. He told him the paint was in the garage and he could paint the porch. Yesterday, the man called the teen and asked if he had finished painting the porch. The young man said, “Yes, sir, but I guess you were teasing me because it wasn’t a Porsche, it was a Mercedes.”

Sometimes we think everything is perfectly clear and we discover that it is not. Life is messy. No one goes through life without dirt, pain, disappointment and death. Life is messy, but it is not plastic, it is real. We cannot expect to get through this life without messiness, complications and much emotional and physical pain. That’s just the way it is.

I read in yesterday’s paper that Americans are more happy than unhappy. The happiest people are married people with children. Who knows better how messy life can be than husbands and wives who have let go of their fantasy and accepted the reality of their spouse? And who knows better than parents that their children are human beings and not angels? Oh yes, life is messy. Applying to colleges and going to our second choice, choosing a job and having to move, developing friendships and getting betrayed, falling in love and being dumped, we take proper care of our bodies and get sick anyway, all these things as well as work, sex, aging, even our church community are all complex, earthy, and messy. So much doesn’t go according to our plan.

That is why today’s second reading from St. Paul ’s Letter to the Hebrews resonates so powerfully. Paul wrote: In the days when Jesus was in the flesh, 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. But we know Jesus prayers were not answered the way we’d like our prayers to be answered.

I’d like to share a poem that expresses some of our reality:

I asked for strength that I might achieve;
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health, that I might do greater things;
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, that I might be happy;
I was given poverty, that I might be free…
I asked for power that I might have praise from men;
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need for God.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life;
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing I asked for, but everything I hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am among all men the most richly blessed.

My friends, when one is wondering in the wilderness, struggling like the Israelites trying to find their way through the desert, it is helpful to know in what direction the milk and honey lies. If we take Jesus advice as expressed in today’s Gospel and “follow” him, we are sure to find our way to the promised land and that is our Good News!.

Fr. Jeff McGowan
Queen of Peace Catholic Community
Gainesville, Florida