5th Sunday of Lent Reflection: Return To Original Blessing
Franciscan Reflections From The Hermitage
Return To Original Blessing – 5th Sunday of Lent Year B – John 12:20-33
The veil is slowly drawn back.
Imagine, imagine… a place and a time of the fellowship of communion, a Camelotian world in which the cherished structures of hierarchical power, the realm of darkness, caste and tribal relationships, treasured world philosophies of profit, control, debt, condemnation, and domination… all become reversed.
Yet here in this place, time, and the fellowship of communion, we find no new Lords of power, domination, darkness, despair, and death. Here we find no reversal of roles. Each soul that has ever lived, from the very Genesis of life to that last child born before the final consummation of the world, is redeemed by the actions of Jesus the Christ, affirmed in their true and original value as “good”.
For many, this is too hard to hear! Many will cry out in distress… Platonic delusional, dangerous, and wishful Atlantian thinking… It is only our worldly system of exchange, of reward and punishment, of winners and losers, that has the power to generate the needs of our world.
From the first creation of the Canon of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, many also found these words of Jesus given to us through John, too hard to bear and would have expunged the Gospel of John altogether. Yet here in the mysticism of John, we can discern from a higher vantage point… the enduring power of Love, the dynamic force that continues to unfold through the ages. Fear has no moral value. It is Love and power that define each other.
John 12:20-33
Amen, Amen… Replies Jesus the Christ, “Now is the Lord of darkness overcome”, the condemnation of the accuser is overthrown, and from the cross of the reconciliation, reunion, debt repayment, and redemption, everyone… not just ‘some’, not just the elite, or some special chosen and privileged souls… but everyone and all of creation is drawn into this moment of enduring glory and grace.
And now the last become first, the hungry are satisfied, prisoners are set free, the blind or given sight, and the deaf hears, Now the boundless power of the Lord of Love overcomes every obstacle, bringing Light where there is darkness, Truth where there is deception, Hope where there is despair, and finally… even Life where there is death.
As we move towards the Easter Light, we prepare with Christ for that death we will also enter into and through.
- Easter Sunday Reflection: The Way – Love Overcomes Violence & Death - March 29, 2024
- Palm Sunday Reflection: Re-Espousing And Anointing - March 22, 2024
- 5th Sunday of Lent Reflection: Return To Original Blessing - March 15, 2024
