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Homily March 18, 2018
Jer 31:31-34; Heb 5:7-9; ;Jn 12;20-30
"The days are coming,…says the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant." —Jeremiah 31:31
The Lord promised us a new covenant
Jesus called it the covenant ‘IN’ His blood.
God,….Who‘IS’ LOVE,…wants to love usin a permanent, faithful relationship,
which is similar to marriage, only better.
‘AS’ married couples make a covenant with each other by exchanging
marriage vows,…‘SO’…the Lord made covenants with Noah, Abraham,
Moses, David, and ‘ALL’ His chosen people.
The problem with these covenants was that God's PEOPLE broke them ‘ALL’.
Human beings seem incapable of keeping a covenant with God, incapable of loving God faithfully. Reflect on ‘OUR’ past day,week or month and discover
how ‘WE’ are incapable of keeping a covenant with God because we sin.
A covenantis a FORMALagreement,betweentwoormorepersonstodoor‘NOT’ dosomethingspecific. Our GOD wrote HIS ‘NEW’ covenant on OUR hearts in Baptism to protect us and ALWAYS be faithful to us. In return He asked us to follow the laws of the commandments…and be faithful… to HIM.
Jesus gave us this new nature and new covenant by His death on the cross.
We receive our newnature and covenant by being born of Water and the Spirit, by being baptized‘INTO’ Jesus and ‘INTO’ His death and resurrection.
By faith, we live according to our NEW nature and in the NEW covenant.
Two weeks from now, you will be asked to renew your baptismal promises.
You will be asked to decide if you will live a life of “Covenant Love.”
What will you decide???
"The man who loves his life loses it,
while the man who hates his life in this world
preserves it ‘TO’ life…eternal." —John 12:25
We are potentially on the threshold of one of the most significant moments of our lives.
Do ‘WE’ expect to meet the risen Christ…this Easter?
The risen, glorified Jesus is about to come to us in a special way.
Easter is nothing less and can be nothing more.
However, to experience the resurrection, we must be willing to die.
Only the dead can come to life.
"Unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat.
‘BUT’ if it dies, it produces much fruit".
We must accept the deaths of repentance, sacrifice, obedience, suffering, and
persecution to be resurrected.
"Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die."
We might rephrase it:
"Everybody wants the resurrection without the crucifixion,
the glory without the cross, Easter without Lent."
It is NEVER too late to begin again. To cleanse our past – Please make time to GET to one of the penance services this week before Easter. Make timeto get the ABSOLUTION required to ‘FORGET’ the past as JESUS does and start fresh and new again. We were not sent here to ‘just’ die.
We were sent here to live…and LIVEwith Jesus for ALL eternity.
Let’s get prepared.
Practice (alone) does not make Perfect.
What makes us PERFECT is forgiveness, obedience, and preserverence,
To learn ,…to come to know JESUSpersonally and then to SERVE as ‘HE’ serves.
Be the WHEAT that HEhas been for others as ‘HE’ has been for us.
I found this writing from Sr. Melannie,SND
that opened my eyes to see…this idea…more clearly and
I would like to share it with you.
And the Stalk said…
How does a grain of wheat FEEL as it is planted in the soil??
To answer that, …. I imagine interviewing a stalk of wheat,
For every stalk was ONCE a grain. Here is what the stalk might say…
“I liked being a grain of wheat.
I was proud of who I was: GOLDEN. SMOOTH. Perfectly intact.
But then some farmer dug a hole and tossed me into it.
What’s going on? I asked.
But my question was met with silence.
Then the dirt came pouring down upon me. I protested.
‘HEY’ !! You’re burying me alive !!! STOP !! BUT no one heard me.
“I sat in total darkness. AFRAID. Then I felt something.
Moisture. AT first, I thought… ‘GOOD, I won’t die of thirst.’
BUT soon I began to get soggy.
I sensed my golden color was fading.
My smooth exterior became wrinkly.
My ‘Intactness” was BREACHED as I was split asunder. I whimpered,
“I’m DYING… THIS is the ENDof me.
“THEN SOMETHING AMAZING HAPPENED.
Out of my shriveled,…BROKEN,…dying SELF, TWO shoots emerged.
One began pushing upward, the other downward –
both powered by ’A’force WITHIN and BEYOND me.
As my root went down, my shoot went up…UNTIL…
it broke through the soiland into the brightness of the sun.
I WAS NO LONGER A GRAIN OF WHEAT – BUT SOMETHING BETTER:…
A STALK OF WHEAT.
FROM ‘ME’…Would come forth many, manyGRAINS of Wheat that would help
feed the people of the world.”
In closing, the Stalk said: … “Trust the Farmer….BEFRIENDsilence and darkness.
EMBRACE Transformation…. Willingly relinqush your INTACTNESS.
BELIEVE…. For the ENDING IS REALLY THE BEGINNING.
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