Wednesday in Holy Week, April 20

A thought about John 12:27-36 and Philippians 4:1-13 in the Lenten season.

Some sayings are like catchy tunes which rattle around in my head and at some unexpected moment come popping out, leaving me to wonder “where did that come from?”  And often the “where from” leads to a “Why now?”

Reading John’s dialogue between Jesus and a recalcitrant crowd which is badgering him about his life’s vocation and impending doom, evoked a churchy mantra I heard years ago from a rather earnest preacher.  It went something like this:  “The question is not ‘How is the Gospel relevant to your life?” no, the question is “How is your life relevant to the Gospel!’”

Turning something on its head appears to be what Jesus is about in John’s climatic summation: “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—“Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.”

If it’s not too big a leap, it appears to me that Paul has also caught onto this dynamic capacity of “divine reversal.” I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances, I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me… Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.

I’m still enthralled with these biblical passages. They lead me to consider that a “holy lent” is not so much a matter of the stoical disposition of “self-denial” although that is certainly a quite useful human achievement; rather a “holy lent” seems more a matter of learning how to insert oneself into the “divine scheme of things” and to do so in a certain order: “Not me first Lord, but after you!”  No wonder Paul finds the “peace of God to pass all human understanding!” But then too he found God’s peace to guard both mind and heart!  And that’s not too shabby a gift for letting God go first!

(PNT)