Believe it or not, there can be a great deal of truth
revealed in cartoons. Occasionally, we run across one of these comics that hits
the nail on the head and articulates some universal truth, often in a humorous
way. One example of this is the cartoon titled, Peanuts. In this particular episode, Linus enters the room to find
his older (and perpetually crabby sister) Lucy crying bitterly, as if
the world itself were about to come to an end. And the reason for her sobbing? “Mom promised me a birthday party and
now she says I can’t have one”, she wails. Now Linus, in his quiet, wise
manner, offers this advice: “You’re not using the right strategy. Why not go up
to mom and say to her: “I’m so sorry dear mother. I admit that I have been
bad. You were right to cancel my party. But from now on I will try to be good.”
Lucy thinks about it; she really does. She even takes the
time to prepare a little speech for her mother. Then she thinks about it some
more…and some more…and some more.
Finally, in the last panel of the cartoon, the stubborn Lucy cries out, “I’d
rather die!”
I think we are all familiar with this reaction of Lucy, this
inherent tendency within each of us
to resist acknowledging our faults and wrongdoing, sometimes even thinking
death to be a better, more attractive alternative. There is something about the
human heart, after the sin of Adam and Eve, which hates to be wrong, which
hates to be obedient, which hates to
be conformed and crucified to the gospel. And for good reason. This process of molding
our heart to the will of God is difficult and painful. As a matter of fact, it
is impossible without the strength of God’s grace. But the pride and
stubbornness of the human heart, portrayed in the Peanuts cartoon causes a pain
all its own. The effects of sin and selfishness tend to make our hearts into
hearts of stone. And even though these hearts of stone can feel familiar and even
comfortable at times, they are hard and impenetrable. Their growth is stunted
because they are shut off from the grace of God. As a result, we cannot grow in
the ways of God’s grace. These hardened hearts, the product of sin, do not
allow us to truly live and love as God intended.
It’s for this reason that the psalmist pleads with God in
the responsorial psalm to create a clean heart within us. Seeing the damage and
pain that a sinful, hardened heart can cause, the writer asks God to create a
new heart within him. And we hear of that same thing happening in our first
reading. The prophet Jeremiah describes the Lord’s plan, a plan which will
write God’s law on the very hearts of his people, a plan which will give them
loving hearts in place of stony hearts, a plan whereby all people will come to
know the Lord not by what they do but by how they love.
But this kind of love doesn’t come easy. In the second
reading, we hear that Christ himself, the
Son of God, learned this obedient love through his suffering and death on
the cross.
In our gospel today, Christ makes it quite clear: unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground
and dies, it remains a single grain and bears
no fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this
world will preserve it for eternal life. Jesus is talking about his imminent
passion and death, but he is also telling us that we will also have to make a
choice of whether or not we will be the grain of wheat that must die. And if we
wish to save our lives for all eternity and bear great fruit for the kingdom of
God, then dying to ourselves is really the only choice we have.
The irony of all of this, is that Lucy, in the Peanuts
cartoon was on the right path. Her line of “I would rather die” is the same
attitude that helped Christ conquer the fears and temptations that would have
prevented him from embracing the cross. The important distinction was that Lucy was afraid of dying to herself, to her
pride, to her way of doing things while Christ was willing to die to all those things so that we might live.
This mindset of “I would rather die” is exactly
the mindset that you and I need to have in regards to sin, selfishness,
pride, and all the other vices that keep us from drawing closer to
Christ. We should be more
willing to die in this life than to give in to the type of behaviors that kill
the life of grace in our souls and separate us from the source of eternal life
and happiness.
In just a week we will enter into the holiest time of the
Church year, those days when we walk with Christ through his passion, death and
resurrection. And in this holy time, we have the chance to lay down our lives,
each in our own way. If we haven’t
been preparing ourselves to die with Christ during these forty days of lent,
then we risk missing out on so many graces. If we have been trying to save our
earthly lives, our sinful habits, or our self-centered practices instead of
drawing closer to Jesus, then it’s possible that we that we have not and will
not bear spiritual fruit.
The good news is that it is not too late. If we have been a
little lax, a little too concerned about our worldly business, there is still
time to embrace the season of lent and allow Christ to transform our stony
hearts into hearts modeled after his own loving heart. It is never too late to die to sin in our
lives; Christ saved the good thief moments before he left this world. As we
celebrate this 5th Sunday of Lent, let us ask our Lord to create a new heart
within us, a heart that despises
sin, a heart that loves God above
all things, a heart that loves our neighbor as ourselves. Create a clean heart in
us, O Lord, that we might bear great fruit for you in this life and rejoice
with you forever in the life to come.
