Fifth Sunday of Lent

Fifth Sunday of Lent
Lisa Boris
Pastoral Associate and Associate Director of Leadership Academy

When I was in high school, I attended a three day retreat similar to Kairos called TEC (Teens Encountering Christ or Together Encountering Christ) that focuses on the Paschal Mystery of Jesus. I was not required to go for school or Confirmation; I chose to go because I had heard good things about it but a few hours into day one, I HATED it and could not understand why everyone loved the retreat so much. 

Inspired by today’s Gospel, wheat is a key theme used on TEC to help understand the Paschal Mystery. “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains but a single grain, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24). In order to grow, and bear fruit, we must first (metaphorically) die. Staying as we are, just a small grain of wheat, does not lead us to life-giving transformation. 

On the first day of TEC, Die Day, retreatants reflect on the example Jesus gives us through His life and death and encourages us to work for better relationships with ourselves, others, and God. In order to do this, we are challenged to give up all the things that are in the way of real, authentic relationships with God and others. We are asked to die to and surrender those things. We change our perspective/attitude, actions, unwillingness to forgive, anything else that is getting in the way of us creating the time, energy, and space for God. 

No wonder I hated the first day of TEC! Die Day was hard work and challenged the comfortable life I loved. It was a painful process to really reflect on the areas I needed to change and/or eliminate in order to grow and bear fruit for myself and others. The reflection was only the beginning; then I would actually have to take action to bring about this change. 

Saint Paul acknowledges the difficulty of this process in today’s second reading. “In the days when Christ Jesus was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears”  (Hebrews 5:7). Jesus prayed with loud cries and tears because the process of bringing about new (and, in Jesus’ case, eternal) life is often painful. We hear Jesus himself acknowledge this in the Gospel.  
“I may be troubled now…but it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.”  (John 12:27). Jesus knew his purpose and what He would need to get there. He knew it would not be an easy journey, but it was a necessary one. 

The last year of my life has been incredibly painful and wrought with change. But it has also led me to better physical, emotional, and financial health, and more authentic and meaningful relationships. The death of some friendships, the change to a less time-consuming job, and all the tears of the last year have definitely borne great fruit. Twenty years after my own Die Day experience, I am still living out the themes of TEC because it is only by dying to ourselves can we embrace the joy of the Resurrection. ​