Sunday, March 21, is the Fifth Sunday of Lent. Mass Readings (Year B): Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 14-15; Hebrews 5:7-9; John 12:20-33.

We are entering the “home stretch” of Lent: This Sunday sets the stage for Jesus’ passion.

In the first reading, we’ve been following the course of salvation history, which is really our spiritual family history. We’ve reviewed the Noahic Covenant (First Sunday), the Abrahamic Covenant (Second Sunday), the Mosaic (or Sinai) Covenant (Third Sunday), and the “Covenant Collapse” that led to Babylonian exile (Fourth Sunday). This Sunday, we read one of the most famous passages of the Old Testament: the prophet Jeremiah’s promise of a “new covenant.” This prophecy is the only passage in the Old Testament that uses the phrase “new covenant,” and Hebrews 8 quotes this passage in full, making it the longest Old Testament quotation found in the New Testament. 

Jeremiah says on behalf of God, “The days are coming … when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel …” This covenant will not be like the Mosaic Covenant, which the people broke time and again, as we read in last Sunday’s first reading. This time, God will place his law “within them,” not in a golden box like the Ark of the Covenant; and he will “write it upon their hearts,” not on tablets of stone. This describes the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is the “new law” of the new covenant (Romans 7:6; 8:2; Galatians 5:18). We receive the Holy Spirit in baptism, and he guides us to choose good over evil. Through the Spirit, we come to “know” God (Jeremiah 31:34). 

In our Psalm (51), David prays to God for forgiveness after committing the greatest sin of his life, adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband, Uriah. “Create in me a clean heart and a steadfast spirit renew within me,” David prays. David is praying to experience the new covenant, with the gift of the Holy Spirit, who cleanses our hearts and forgives our sins (Galatians 4:6; Acts 2:38).

Our second reading (Hebrews 5:7-9) seems to describe Jesus’ passion when it says “he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears.” It says Jesus “learned obedience from what he suffered.” Jesus lacked no intellectual knowledge, but in his human nature, he had not undergone the suffering of the Passion before, so in this sense, he “learned” experientially. It speaks of Jesus “being made perfect,” using a term (“perfect,” Hebrew tamim) associated with a spotless animal of sacrifice. By embracing his suffering, Jesus became the perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins.

Our Gospel is one of Jesus’ self-predictions of his passion from John’s account, this time John 12:20-33. Greeks come seeking Jesus out at the Passover (John 12:20). As prophesied (Isaiah 11:10 NABRE), the Gentiles are seeking the Messiah, and Jesus takes it as a sign that his passion is at hand: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” 

This is a great paradox: The hour of Jesus’ death is really his hour of glory. Jesus’ cross is his cosmic throne from which he judges the world, casts out Satan, and draws the world to himself. We, too, need to learn this: Our sufferings are our glory, our crosses are our thrones, and by embracing evil with love we will win others to salvation.