Homily - Saint John 3:14-21.

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Fr. Raymond  . . .

Sent: Sunday, 18 March 2012.

Subject: Sermon 4th Sun Lent

IF I BE LIFTED UP

“If I be lifted up from the earth I will draw all things to myself.”

• When Jesus spoke these words he was speaking, of course, about his passion, and his death on the cross.  But, there is something more than that in these words: “If I be lifted up from the earth I will draw all things to myself.” The implications of the terms he uses: “lifted up” and “draw all things”, are very great.  When he says about his passion that it will be something that will “lift him up”: he is not just referring to his passion and death as such; he is calling us to realise that his passion and death are something more than just a historic reality, a thing over and done with once and for all. His passion and death are meant to be a thing that is “lifted up” forever, lifted high up before the gaze of all mankind for all time to come.  They are meant to be a constant background to the lives of all his brothers and sisters, all those he will win for himself by that same passion and death.
• And when he says that his passion and death “will draw all things” to himself, he implies that meditation on his passion and death, the fixing of our minds gaze on the Crucified One, will be a powerful force in our lives, a powerful force drawing our minds and hearts to love and gratitude towards him.
• We could well compare these words Jesus spoke about his passion and death to the words he spoke about his Eucharist: “If you do not eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man you cannot have life in you”, so also we might hear him say: “If you do not contemplate in your minds and hearts the greatness of the things I have suffered for you then you cannot have love in you.” Without the Eucharist there is no life; without the passion there is no love.  Without sharing in the Eucharist we cannot have life; without sharing in the passion, we cannot have love.
• Our own St Bernard once said that a day without a thought on the passion of Christ is a day lost.
• When we come before the Lord for judgement we can’t presume to count on offering him our poor good works.  We are, as he said himself: “unprofitable servants”, but the one thing we can offer to him, knowing that it has great weight with him is the memory of the times we spent with him in his agony in the Garden, the time we spent with him at the foot of the Cross, beside his Mother and St John.