Happy Easter! He is Risen!
Happy Easter! He is Risen!
5th Sunday in Lent – Year B (March 25th)
March 23, 2012 by Websec
Filed under Archive, Gospel Reflections
5th Sunday in Lent – Year B (March 25th)
Readings: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 51:3-4, 12-15
Hebrews 5:7-9
John 12:20-33
Next Sunday we enter the sombre gloom of Passiontide, without which we cannot reach the celebration of Easter. The only way to let light shine on the darkness is to remind ourselves, again and again, that our hope rests only in God; that is the message proclaimed by the readings for next Sunday.
The first reading comes from one of the few cheerful bits of Jeremiah. He has spent a good deal of his prophecy warning Israel that they are getting things badly wrong, and, latterly, that Exile is inevitable. Now that it has happened (or is about to happen), his tone becomes more cheerful (and he never says, “I told you so”). The point is that God is in charge, and is going to “make a new covenant with the house of Israel”, not to supersede the old one (for God can never change his mind), but to take us deeper into the mystery. Israel is reminded of God’s goodness when he “took them by the hand to bring them out from the house of Egypt” (when they had broken the covenant). This new covenant “I shall write upon their hearts”, and the relationship will be restored, and “I shall be God for them, and they shall be a people for me”. Wonderfully, when that time comes, “They shall all know me, from their littlest to their great ones”.
The psalm is one that we have heard quite often during the Lenten season, and its author’s eyes are solidly on God, “Have mercy on me, God, in your steadfast love, in the multitude of your mercy blot out my offence”. The singer is quite honest about having done wrong, but knows that only God can cope. “A pure heart create for me, God; renew a steadfast spirit within me”. He also knows what he deserves, “Do not send me away from your presence; and do not take your Holy Spirit from me”. There is joy here, if we only knew how to find it.
The second reading is from the Letter to the Hebrews, one of the most theologically thoughtful documents of the New Testament. Here too we feel the gloom of Passiontide, as we contemplate Jesus’ “prayers and entreaties” to “the One who was able to save him from death, with a great cry and weeping”. The author makes the very striking claim that Jesus, “although he was a Son, learnt obedience from what he had suffered, and was made perfect…” It seems that there is no way of avoiding suffering on the journey to Easter.
The gospel reading is from John, and if sometimes you find yourself reflecting that in the Fourth Gospel Jesus makes an effortless passage through death to the final victory, just look at these verses. It is the nearest that John’s Gospel gets to seeing Jesus in anything like the Agony in the Garden that the other three gospels recount. It starts with some “Greeks”, (presumably non-Hebrew-speaking Jews on a visit to Jerusalem). They approach the two apostles with Greek names, Philip and Andrew, who then report to Jesus. Jesus’ comment is very striking, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified”. Then thoughts of death come into his talk, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies…those who love their lives will lose them”. Now Jesus admits that it is not coming easily to him, “Now my soul is disturbed, and what am I to say?” At this point, he is clearly thinking of not going through with it, but he knows “It was for this that I came to this hour”. Instead, therefore, he asks his Father, “Glorify your name”, and receives an immediate response, “I have glorified it, and will continue to glorify it”. Jesus’ response faces the conflict head-on, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all people to myself”. This is a strange mixture of darkness and light.
Easter Vacation Mass Times
Easter Vacation Mass Times: Sunday Masses 9am and 11am;
Easter Triduum: 5th Apr, Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper 8pm;
6th Apr, Good Friday Liturgy 3pm; Sat 7th Apr Easter Vigil 9pm;
Sun 8th April Easter Day. Mass at 11am; Chaplaincy closed Mon 9 – Fri 13 Apr;
Sat 14: Confessions 11.15-11.45, Mass 12 noon;
Sun 15th April 0th week. Masses at 9am and 11am; Sun 22nd April Full term starts
Holy Hour
Thu 8th Mar: 6pm – 7pm: Holy Hour; 7pm CathSoc curry plus 8pm Lord David Alton. Human Rights, Human Life and Human Dignity. All welcome.
College Masses
College Masses: Corpus Christi College, Mon 5 March, 6pm; St Hugh’s College, Tue 6 March, 6pm.
Open Week La Misa Campesina
Open Week La Misa Campesina
Sat 3rd: 5.30pm: Misa Campesina, (Nicaraguan Mass and singers), followed at 6.30pm by fiesta, and at 7.30pm La Yuma, Film set in Nicaragua about a girl who dreams of becoming a boxer.
Open Week Reconciliation
Open Week Reconciliation
Fri 2nd: 7pm Cathsoc pasta; 8-10pm: Vigil of Reconciliation. All welcome.
Open Week Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor
Open Week Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor
Thu 1st: 6pm – 7pm: Holy Hour with adoration of the Blessed Sacrament; 7pm Pasta Bolognese plus from 8.00pm H.E. Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, Prospects for the Catholic Church in our world today. All welcome.
Open Week Alternative Careers Fair
Open Week Alternative Careers Fair
Wed 29th: 6pm Fr Gerry W Hughes SJ speaking on “Pilgrimage”, 7pm, Cathsoc soup; 7pm, Enlighten your Lent: praise & adoration: Fr. J-B Masson & Emmanuel Community; 8pm: Alternative Careers Fair
Open Week Climate Change
Open Week Climate Change
Tue 28th: 7pm Cathsoc Pasta plus from 8pm Climate Change and Christianity: a debate, with Nick Chan (St Antony’s) Luke Hughes (Merton) recently at the Durban conference & Alex Kirby (Keble & Environmental and BBC Religious Affairs correspondent.
