Homily For The Fifth Sunday Of Lent Year B.

Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51:3-4.12-15; Hebrews 5:7-9; John 12:20-33.

“THE COVENANT: OUR SECOND CHANCE!”

By: Rev. Fr. Charles Onyeka Ezejide.

·     Today, the church celebrates the 5th Sunday of Lent Year B. Our Lenten observances are far spent. Yes, the journey may have been torturous, with temptations here and there, but we must not cave in because what is ahead of us is better than what is behind us.

·      Today, our Lord God wants to make a new covenant with us. He wants to rectify and validate our Lenten observances by a new covenant with us. There became a need for a new covenant because we had lawlessly departed from the previous ones, and now God is giving us a second chance.

·      There is always a necessity to review our tactics and strategies in serving God and doing his will. When our present tactics are not yielding the expected result, we must jettison it, and source for another that works. A tactic that keeps us committed to the commandments of God.

·      In the first reading (Jeremiah 31:31-34), the Prophet Jeremiah reminds us of God taking the initiative to re-establish a new covenant with his children. The first covenant was ratified with the blood of bulls and rams and it failed, the new covenant will be ratified with the blood of the only begotten son of God.

·      With the establishment of the new covenant, God will no longer remember our transgressions and he will grant us a second chance and an opportunity for a new beginning. The laws and conditions of the first covenant were written on stones and tablets, the conditions of the new covenant will be written in our hearts. We will know the difference between good and evil.

·     The new covenant that God makes with us today is a Covenant of mercy and forgiveness, a covenant of peace and restoration, and a covenant of elevation and revival. God makes this new covenant with us by forgiving our transgressions and choosing not to remember past offenses.

·      Friends in Christ, this Sunday, God is reminding us that he has put his laws (commandments) into our hearts to do good and to reject evil. Those laws must always be kept alive and pondered upon if we must grow in holiness. We must also remember that this new covenant was made with the sacrifice of the only son of God.

·      Dearly beloved in Christ, God is constantly seeking us out, no matter how many times we have offended God, he still goes in search of us to bring us back to the fold and to restore us to his peace. God wants to be our God; we must also be eager to be his people. Accepting to be his people is to be ready at all times to do his will and keep his commandments.

·     The second reading (Hebrews 5:7-9), paints the picture of what the son of God had to go through that you and I be saved. He had to endure the pain and agony of the cross. He died that you and I may live. It is not easy to die for a good man, let alone die for a sinful man. But the son of God died so that you and I may become holy, pure, and righteous.

·      Dearly beloved, we must make the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross count by taking seriously this invitation for a new beginning and a new covenant. God does not want us to die in our sins but to repent of them and enter his peace. No matter how sinful we may have been, no matter how far we have wandered away from God, he is inviting us to come back to Him and be made clean and whole again. When we obey God, he becomes the source of our eternal salvation.

·      In the gospel reading (John 12:20-33), Jesus specifically makes it clear to us that if we must make heaven and enjoy the benefit of the new covenant which he is establishing with us, we must learn to die to self and our passions. We must let God rule us and not our passions and desires.

·      The parable of the wheat grain is used to teach us an eternal lesson that we must first die to some of our senseless passions and inclinations to sin to rise and grow into a better person, grow into the image God had originally destined us to be. 

·      It is in dying to ourselves that we begin to live. Like the bread that must be broken to be shared with others; and like the candle that must be consumed to give light, so also, we must learn to give of ourselves, to die to ourselves, for others to live. In so doing, we make our own lives more meaningful and fruitful, we can share fully in the life of Jesus – a life of total self-giving. For truly, as beautifully put by St. Francis of Assisi, “It is in giving that we receive; it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

·   During the remaining days of Lent, let us seriously do some acts of self-denial: fasting, abstinence, almsgiving, sacrifices, and acts of penance. These will surely help us practice dying. Saying “no” to our pleasurable vices, saying “no” to a comfortable and pampered lifestyle, and saying “no” to selfish search for worldly gain and success will be very painful for most of us and could be tantamount to dying. So that we may be able to share ourselves with others – so that others may live. This is what martyrdom means nowadays, not any bloodier martyrdom, but equally painful and fruitful martyrdom.

·      God is making a new covenant with us, he is giving us a chance at a new beginning, we must not let this second chance he is giving us slip away by our continued wallowing in sin. We must come back to God with our hearts torn and not our garments and like the psalmist says to him “Create a pure heart for me, O God” (Ps. 51:12).

·      May the good Lord bless his words in our hearts through Christ our Lord, Amen!

·      Happy Sunday!!!