5th Sunday of Lent 2021
Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 5:7-9; John 12:20-33
I am not going to insult you by asking what were Jesus’ final words from the Cross as reported by St. John, whose account of the Passion we always read on Good Friday. You know as well as I do that those words were, according to the Fourth Gospel “It is accomplished”.
It is fascinating—at least I think it is, and I am the one holding the conch shell (cf.Wm Goulding: “Lord of the Flies”) so I can express my opinion—it is fascinating that the Greek word here translated “accomplished” is, at root, the same word which the Letter to the Hebrews uses, and which is there translated “having been made perfect” and which Our Lord Himself uses, according to Matthew 5:48, when saying “You must be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect”.
Now before your eyes glaze over completely, and you become totally catatonic, let me explain. Today’s Mass readings are all pointing towards the concept of completion, fulfillment, perfection; and the fulfillment of everything will occur when Jesus surrenders Himself completely in death into the hands of the Father. Not only will the scriptures be fulfilled, but the whole of human history, for this self-surrender will make possible the Resurrection, and complete the salvation of the world, and the purpose of creation.
Teilhard de Chardin, the twentieth century Jesuit philosopher and theologian, spoke of Christ as the Omega point of history, the focal point around which everything revolves. In the suffering, death, and Resurrection of Jesus, not only His own life but the whole of creation is accomplished, fulfilled, and perfected, and that includes our own perfection. Don’t worry that you feel far from perfect; your perfection will be achieved when, in and with Jesus, you pass through death and into new life.
That will be a glorious accomplishment, and glory is the key element for John when he speaks of the Passion of Our Lord. For John, glory is found, not only in the Resurrection, but already in Jesus’ surrender to death. Thus, John doesn’t dwell on Our Lord’s sufferings—he happily leaves that to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, from whom we hear in a three year cycle on Palm Sunday. Instead, he depicts a Jesus who is completely in control, directing the events of the Passion to the glory of God.
“Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified,” says Jesus, before praying “Father, glorify your name”, a prayer which receives the answer “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again”. Never mind, implies John, that this glorification will entail terrible suffering: God’s Son is fulfilling the Father’s will, and this is glory, this is fulfillment, this is accomplishment, this is perfection.
Both the writer to the Hebrews and St. John make passing reference to the Agony in the Garden. The Letter to the Hebrews comments that “During His life on earth, Jesus offered up prayer and entreaty, aloud and in silent tears to the One who had the power to save Him out of death”—that is an interesting expression, by the way, not “from death” but “out of death”, implying that first He must go into death—and in reading that, we are inevitably reminded of Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane, and of His sweat which fell like drops of blood.
John, on the other hand, summarises the Gethsemane prayer almost in passing: “Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say: Father save me from this hour? But it is for this very reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Thus, we have the elements of the prayer which the other evangelists record. It is perfectly reasonable that, in the light of those three (synoptic) Gospels, we should meditate deeply on the Agony in the Garden, that we should unite our sufferings with those of Jesus, that we should recognise our own Gethsemane moments as a sharing in the Agony of Jesus, but we should also, with John, accept that they are moments of fulfillment, moments of glory, however painful and inglorious they may seem.
The Passion of the Christ is the fulfillment of the prophets, but also the fulfillment of history. As we mourn for, and share in, His sufferings, we must also remember that, in them, are His perfection and ours, His fulfillment and ours, His glory and ours; in them, the whole purpose of creation is accomplished.
