Maps help us to know how to get to where we are going
Whenever I go somewhere new the first thing that I like to do is to have a map - so I know where I am going and how I am going to get there. I am at peace when I know where I am going and how to get there - I think that is part of my nature, and likely a side-effect from traveling around the world as a kid. The Gospels today make a map for us of Holy Week. They map out the mystery of Holy week in a beautiful way and prepare us for next week - in which we celebrate the heart of the Christian faith.
The Gospel - A map of Holy Week, the life of the Church and My Life.
If we were to map out the readings today we would discover that they form a whirlpool, with each ring of the whirlpool pulling in the next ring out. Imagine a clock - there are 3 stops in each ring of the whirlpool, one at 12 O'clock, one at 4 O'clock and one at 8 O’clock. Each ring connects to the next ring when you transition from the 8 O'clock position to the next 12 O'clock position.
This whirlpool has 3 rings in it.
At the heart of the whirlpool is Christ,
then Philip and Andrew in the middle ring and
the Greeks - who represent you and I in the outer ring.
Each ring is formed by the parable from the Gospel
At 12 O'clock - The idea is “A grain of wheat”
At 4 O'clock - “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat;”
At 8 O'clock - “but if it dies, it produces much fruit.”
The inner ring, 12 O'clock - Christ is the Grain of Wheat
We start with Christ at the 12 O’clock position - Christ is the Grain of Wheat What is it that the grain of wheat does? (from Hebrews) -
“In the days when Christ 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.”
Christ makes his love for the Father and his relationship with the Father the foremost event of His life. It is because of that relationship with the Father that he goes on mission to his neighbors and friends - but relationship with the Father is foremost.
Inner Ring, 4 O'clock - “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat;”
As a result of Christ’s relationship with the Father he accepts the passion and the cross - This is the movement from the acceptance of who we are to what we will do.
In the gospel Christ speaks of his passion when he says
“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.”
The glorification of the Father occurs when Christ acts on the Father’s will and takes up his Cross.
What keeps us from embracing the Christ - It is that we love ourselves more than the Father
Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.
How do I change (repent) my view of my life?
In Hebrews Jesus teaches us to enter into this mystery we need to approach our relationship with God in a different way.
“Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered;”
2 Problems - Obedience and Suffering
For modern westerners there are two problems with this witness - that Christ learned obedience AND that obedience was learned through suffering.
We think that Obedience leads to imprisonment - but Obedience is the key to freedom. The word obedience has some negative connotations - we want a radical independence and liberty from everyone - which means we want to obey no one - I am free therefore I get to do my own thing… This is not the kind of freedom that Christ teaches. Christ teaches freedom from oppression through experiencing the love of God. Christ teaches freedom from sin by listening to the will of the Father. The Father has a mission for each one of us and it is found within this parable.
The problem of embracing Suffering - what it means to die
To be obedient means to listen with your heart - that is what Christ does, and he is compelled by the love of the father - even though in his humanity he is not comfortable with the idea to listen to the Father and to embrace suffering because it brings us to holiness.
Suffering is nothing that we would ever want to embrace, however it is in suffering that we learn to depend on God and to rely on His grace. It is in suffering that we see God’s love being perfected in us and through us.
Inner Ring - 8 O'clock - “but if it dies, it produces much fruit.”
For our culture - suffering is useless - after all you can’t work when you are dead. For Christ - death is an integral part of His mission because by his obedient embracing of the suffering of death that he opens the gateway to eternal life.
Jesus makes this clear when He says:
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.
Again, from Hebrews,
Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
St. Ambrose - Death shows our true nature
About this parable St. Ambrose pointed out that the nature of the grain of wheat is hidden until it dies and rots - then it brings forth abundant life - new life that shows its inner reality. This is a great way of seeing the Love of Christ - it is because of Christ’s death on the cross that we have abundant life with God.
It is through Christ’s death that eternal life is possible
Christ’s death was not empty, devoid of meaning - but it is at the heart of everything that we do as Christians - it is in His death that everything in life has meaning.
The Middle Ring - 12 O'clock - Christ’s abundant fruit through the Apostles. - The Apostles are grains of wheat.
Andrew and Philip are called to also be grains of wheat - and it is in being wheat along with Christ they learn to listen to God and to follow God with their hearts.
Andrew and Philip had a radical experience of Christ. They spent 3 years with Him during His public ministry and then witnessed his passion, death, and amazingly the resurrection. In John’s Gospel Christ goes on to say
Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.
The Middle Ring - 4 O'clock - Martyrdom of Philip and Andrew - Unless a grain of wheat dies…
As servants we are called to become conduits for others to encounter God’s love - but in order to do that we need to first follow Christ. After the Resurrection both Andrew and Philip lived their lives sharing the reality of Christ with those around them and they did not flinch from their mission - to the point that like Christ they were both crucified. Andrew was crucified in Patras, Greece and Philip in Hierapolis (in South west Turkey) which was at that time also Greek territory. Philip and Andrew were willing to set aside their lives to show the Gentiles the love of God.
The Middle Ring - 8 O'clock - The witness of the Apostles is the path through which we come to know God - And when it dies it produces much fruit…
Christ’s love is written on our hearts through our Apostolic Faith…
Each Sunday in the mass we recite the creed which connects us to the fruits of the martyrdoms of Andrew and Philip when we say “I believe in One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church…” The faith that we have comes to us from the witness of the love of God given to us through the Apostles. Andrew and James were linchpins through which this grace has flowed to us. They are the servants of Christ who bring us the new covenant that the prophet Jeremiah speaks of -
This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD. I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
The Eucharist is how we receive God’s Law in our hearts
Since the start of the Church the Apostles have celebrated the Eucharist. It is here that we hear about the actions of God, and receive the Eucharist - That “Grain of Wheat” which is Christ who has died that we might receive God himself, the gift of Love in our hearts.
The Outer Ring - 12 O'clock - You and I are the Greeks who approach Christ through the Apostles. We too are “grains of wheat”
Philip and Andrew you and I, brothers and sisters are Grains of Wheat. We are the ones who need to take this Gospel to heart this week and to live it out so that God’s will can be done in our lives. Jeremiah goes on to say “All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.”
Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving help us to know God
The goal of our fasting, almsgiving and prayer this Lent has been to help us to get to know God more clearly, more completely. When we welcome Christ into our hearts, by our prayers, words and actions we form our conscience.
Jeremiah says “I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer will they have need to teach their friends and relatives how to know the LORD.”
When our conscience is properly formed - by an encounter with the true and living God we no longer need others to teach us write from wrong - for we know right (Christ) and out of our love for Him we avoid the wrong - This leads us to
4 O'clock position of the outer ring - Unless a Grain of Wheat dies…
Our conscience makes it clear to us when we have strayed from the truth and from our relationship with God - it leads us to conversion - to a death to sin. The psalmist today prays the prayer of a Christian who desire forgiveness from God.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me.
A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me. Cast me not out from your presence, and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving show us that we too are grains of wheat…
Another purpose of our prayer, fasting and almsgiving this Lent is to help us to be a grain of wheat - to imitate Andrew and Philip, who imitate Christ and to confront Sin in our own lives.
Prayer is to ask for the strength to follow Christ,
Fasting is to prepare us for death - to teach the body that the soul is greater and
Almsgiving is to give thanks to God for the grace to be converted to serving him.
We are called to be wheat - to enter into death through obedience and suffering so that we make space in our lives for the love of Christ to dwell.
8 O'clock, Outer Ring - “But if it dies it produces much fruit…”
The beauty of embracing the Christian life is that it is the way that you and I are called to participate in the life of God - to cooperate with Him to bring about His will. As the Psalmist says Give me back the joy of your salvation, and a willing spirit sustain in me. I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners shall return to you.
Our mission as Catholic Christians is to be the servants of the New Covenant - to form our consciences according to dwell and to nourish the gift of the Holy Spirit that dwells in our hearts. To accomplish this we too need to become a grain of wheat - to die to sin so that they might have life.
Do we have the courage to embrace the cross in our lives?
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