Gospel Reflection: 5th Sunday of Lent

Gospel Reflection: 5th Sunday of Lent

Firstly, to all those people for whom the Saint we celebrate on March 17th is significant...Happy Feastday! Many people share in the devotion to St Patrick, and his intercession has assisted many ambitions in the Christian life. No matter about the issue of where he was born (and the village of Aspatria near Whitehaven in the diocese has a claim to this!)... he is not celebrated for where he was born. He is celebrated as the Apostle to the Irish people. Long may his intercession benefit all God’s people. 

St Patrick Stained Glass Window

To be an apostle is to be one who is sent to share in the mission of the Lord. This “being sent” means that an individual agrees to go, but that the mission may demand several sacrifices to make it bear fruit within the life of faith. Think of many of the first individuals counted as apostles...their lives were often turned upside-down, for example St Peter himself! (and St Patrick for that matter). A humble Galilean fisherman, who with his brother St Andrew and his family kept the wolf from the door by catching fish in the Sea of Galilee. But then, recognising the promised Messiah in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, left all the security of family and location and followed Jesus wherever his itinerant life took him. Often sleeping under the stars he kept close to the Lord and his Gospel, even when it brought him into conflict with prevailing trends of his Jewish faith as it was lived by the scribes, pharisees, and ultimately when Jesus was tried for being “The King of the Jews”. Peter is remembered as one hailed by Christ as “the rock on which I will build my church”, and within minutes scorned by the Lord with the words “get behind me Satan!”. 

Unless a grain of wheat shall fall ...

After the Lord’s death and resurrection Peter was pivotal in helping the young church develop its own sense of Apostolic identity, himself being sent on a journey of life and faith which took him first to Antioch and then to Rome. In both places he became their Bishop, and in Rome suffered the same fate as The Lord. “Unless a grain of what shall fall upon the ground and die, it remains just a single grain. But if it dies it yields a harvest”. The death the Lord refers to this Sunday isn't a physical death, but rather an opportunity to die to self so as to be more alive in Christ. What greater example can we ask for in these closing weeks of Lent 2024?