16 March 2024 – 5th Sunday of Lent (Year B) (Sunset Mass)

by Fr Fabian Dicom

Every month the Pope has a prayer intention and for this month, the prayer intention for March is we pray that the new martyrs inflame the church with their courage and missionary enthusiasm.

I write a piece in the Herald every month, trying to expound the Pope’s prayer intention. And these were the words, the introductory words that I wrote for the article that appeared a couple of weeks ago.

I began with this:
“I do not believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me, I will rise again in the people of El Salvador,” declared the beloved martyr, St Oscar Romero.
I am sure many of you have heard it. He is one of my favourite modern day martyrs and saints, the former Archbishop of El Salvador.

Now Romero spoke out against social injustice and violence. Amid the escalating conflict between the military government at that time and the left-wing rebels who were fighting for the people that led to a civil war in El Salvador. As the Archbishop, Romero changed the church’s focus. Now the church was aligned with the State so he changed the focus to champion the cause of the impoverished, people who were marginalised.

Traditionally the church had aligned itself with the ruling elite of El Salvador. But Romero deemed this partnership unacceptable, given the widespread poverty perpetuated by the collaboration of church, of State and military. Imagine that! And that was what happened not very long ago.

Emulating the efforts of progressive priests in the rural areas, Romero firmly positioned the church in solidarity with the poor, with those marginalised. This marked the first instance in the whole of El Salvador’s history. They had the backing of a prominent institutional figure. Someone for the marginalised people.

And in 1980, Romero was shot and he died while celebrating Mass. He symbolises for many Salvadoreans the spirit of a struggle to liberate the poor, the powerless from the repression of the privileged few who wielded social economic and political power in El Salvador.

His life was one of great personal transformation. It was the murder of his close friend, Fr Rutilio Grande, a priest working with the poor in the rural area, championing for justice. And this catalysed and changed Romero from a shy, conservative, adhering to the State’s wants to a man with a revolutionary idea, ready to give his life so that justice will be served.

And with that, he decided to put what believed to be the will of God which was the welfare of the most vulnerable before his own security. He would suffer a great loss for the sake of others. In a sense, he chose to risk death because he had many death threats so that others might have a humane life. 

His life is a striking example of an image that Jesus uses in the Gospel Reading, the grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies and in dying, yields a rich harvest.

Hold on.
How?
Why are you telling us this story?
That is Romero.
What are we going to do? 

We can. There is hope. Just stay with me.

When a grain of wheat is dropped into the earth, the seed shrinks, empties itself and dies.  Those of you who are planting all around the church, you know this. Yet in the warmth and moisture of the earth, new life breaks out of the husk and yields the rich harvest. The grain of wheat is an image of Jesus.

The grain of wheat is an image of Jesus. Saint Paul in Philippians 2:7 says of Jesus:
That he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. He emptied himself in loving service of God and of humanity.

Very important aspect of Christ. He emptied his form to take the form of a servant. He continued down this path of self-emptying love of others, even when it became clear that it would cause his life.

Saint Paul goes on to say:
He emptied himself becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross.
This is what we term in the Christian teaching as kenosis. Greek word to say emptying of ourselves. This is our call.

Now in today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus is aware that the hour is at hand. When like the grain of wheat, he will be buried in the heart of the earth. He stands to lose everything. It is clear from the Gospel Reading that the prospect of such loss troubles him deeply and he is tempted to pray:
Father, save me from this hour.
Yet, he comes through this struggle and remains faithful to his love inspired mission. Like the Good Shepherd who loves his flock so deeply that he is prepared to lay down his life for them.

Now his ultimate self-emptying on the cross yields this rich harvest. It reveals the depth of his love for all of us and to the extent, God the Father loves the world.

Now in the light of this resurrection, the cross is seen to be an explosion of divine love. Which is why Jesus can say in the Gospel Reading:
When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.
As Jesus hung from the cross, Pilate declared him the king in mockery. Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Yet, this mocking title proclaimed a great truth. Jesus was a King, but his Kingdom was not based on the force of arms but on the drawing power of love.

Jesus lifted up on the cross, lifted up in glory continues to draw people to himself.

And that is not the only meaning of being lifted up. In drawing us to himself, he draws us into sharing in his own risen life. That is the other significance of being risen. His risen life. His dying was life-giving, not only for himself but for all who turned to him in faith.

If, my dear brothers and sisters, if that grain of wheat which falls to the ground and dies and in dying yields a rich harvest, if this is the image of Jesus, don’t you think it is also the image of all his followers. you and I?

The image of the grain of wheat that falls and dies and a rich harvest, which is Jesus, is also the image of all of us who proclaim Jesus is our Lord and Master. So following the Lord will always, always involve an element of self-emptying, of dying to ourselves out of love for others. The image of the wheat grain invites us to ask:
What within me needs to die so that I may live more fully with the life of the Lord? So that I may love more fully with his love?

And for us followers of the Risen Lord, the moment of death is the final self-emptying that yields a rich harvest. It is the ultimate letting go that opens us up to a wonderful encounter with the Lord of love, who finally and fully draws us to himself.

But, as we journey to that final moment of letting go, the Lord calls us daily to empty ourselves in love for others. The Lord calls us every day to do that, on a personal level, to die to our self-centredness. In our self-centeredness which manifests in various forms including judgmental attitudes, I have this saying by Kahlil Gibran:
Our worst fault is the pre-occupation with the faults of others.
What does he wear?
What does he do?
Does he come to church regularly?
Is he early or is he late?
What is his orientation?
So on and so forth.

And that kills us. It kills community. To empty ourselves, not any of our judgmental attitudes but our self-righteousness. And that is on a personal level. And as a church, to be a kenotic church, we the church, a kenotic community, a community that can empty itself to die to the wide-spread indifference towards injustices faced by the marginalised.

And who are they? We know who they are, whether they are the refugees, the migrant, the poor, the people who don’t have anything. And they are part of us. And we cannot ignore that. It prompts us to re-evaluate the priorities of our faith community, moving away from an inward looking approach, centred solely on rites and rituals and externals, or a crippling religiosity, or SOPs.

I come from Ipoh, so I am going to use a cantonese word. You know ‘kan cheong‘ or not? Kan cheong spider? The level of ‘kan cheong’-ness here is very high. I am telling you that. Not only the people who serve. Everyone. Very high ‘kan cheong’ level here.

My dear brothers and sisters, this is not the High Court. This is not the police station. This is not a factory in the Free Trade Zone. We are the body of Christ. We can just keep that in our mind. We are the body of Christ. So how we speak, how we operate has to change. Only then that grain of wheat will die and yield the fruit that the Lord wants.

We need to move beyond the comfort of our pews, actively seeking out ways to embody the love and mercy of Christ in our daily lives which includes speaking out against injustice, standing in solidarity with the marginalised, actively working towards building a more just and fair society.

The legacies of the martyrs like St Oscar Romero and other countless modern-day witnesses to the Gospel serves as a powerful reminder of the power of emptying ourselves. The courage in the face of adversity challenges us to break free from the shackles of indifference and actively step out in faith.

My dear brothers and sisters, the Lord does not ask us to take this more difficult path relying only on our own resources. We need to allow the Lord to keep drawing us to himself so that we can draw strength from him. And here is where we draw strength. It is a strength we get from the Lord that allows us to keep taking the path of self-emptying love. Again in the words of Saint Paul:
I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.

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