In the first reading God is promising through Jeremiah
that He will make new covenant with Israel as they have broken the Sinai
covenant stipulations; keeping God’s commandments without fail. In the Sinai
covenant God promised Israel to show His allegiance toward them and in return demanded
their faithful observance of Ten Commandments. It was a bilateral covenant –
both parties promise to give their due to the other. God kept His promises of
allegiance, where as people forsake the commandments. God is not interested in
making one more covenant with them which also they may forsake. This time God
instead of giving commandments written on a stone to follow, promises to write
the commandments in the hearts of each man (Jer 31:33) so that their conscience
is full time occupied with the law. The external things may go without making
any impact on a person. The internal things did really influence every action
of the person. Thus, God is making new covenant that will make His laws written
in the heart of men. This new covenant is Jesus, who comes to establish the
kingdom of God that will rule the hearts of people not the land that is limited
with territory. The kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed is God’s rule in the
heart of each man.
In the gospel, Jesus says that He will draw all people
to Himself when He is lifted up (Jn 12:32). The cruel death that He will
undergo in Calvary on the cross would make all kinds of people to gaze at. Crucifixion
is a show off the power of romans superiority. Jesus’ death on the cross would
make the Jews to change their idea of Messiah. They have to accept the meek
Messiah reality of Jesus, who underwent human life without claiming any divine
intervention on His behalf. In the gospel of today, greeks are coming to meet
Jesus. In this context, Jesus saying about His passion and advise to not to
love one’s life and hate life to gain eternal reward pricks the philosophical
mind of greeks to mellow down their intellectual pride and submit to the
limitations. Jesus death on the cross did draw the attention of intellectual
greeks to place their sense of wonder in folly rather than beauty.
Wondering on whatever is beautiful alone will make us
to leave the ugliness unnoticed. The beauty is an outcome of ugliness. Any
building that is built should undergo the ugliness of scaffolding to get the
beautiful shape. Any highways that is formed should give inconvenience to the travelers
for the better ride in the future. The
ignorance of ugly leads one to hold the beauty as absolute. The appreciation of
ugliness leads one to make everything beautiful. Thus, one who loves
his/her life very much would forget the limitation and regret life when
something unpleasant happens. On the contrary, one who hates his/her life would
gain strength to face every situation with positive mind. One who appreciates beauty
alone will ignore the effort of the ugly. One who wonders at the possibility of
ugly would bring out the beauty from it. Jesus submitted Himself to the
limitations of the human reality and placed Himself in obedience to the Father
for the help (Heb 5:7-9). This season of lent is a time to interrogate one’s
idea about beauty. Is beauty what attracts me, or what I make? Can I restrict
myself to the beauty that is evident or make effort to bring beauty from everything
that I face, have and every person I meet? May our Crucified Lord draw us to
gaze at the ugliness with the sense of wonder to bring out the beauty from it.
Whishing you a very fruitful interrogative lent!
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