Fifth Sunday of Lent

Mass Readings

• First Reading Jeremiah 31:31-34
• Responsorial Psalm Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 14-15
• Second Reading Hebrews 5:7-9
• Gospel John 12:20-33

Open the Mass Readings on USCCB.org →

USCCB lists the Year B readings as primary for 2027. Parishes celebrating the Scrutinies with catechumens use the Year A readings instead (the Samaritan woman, the man born blind, the raising of Lazarus), which are always permitted.

Step Into the Story

Jeremiah preached in Jerusalem for some forty years, from around 627 B.C. until the city fell to Babylon in the summer of 586 B.C. He was beaten, locked in stocks and lowered into a muddy cistern. Yet at the darkest hour he promised a “new covenant,” written on hearts, the only time the phrase appears in the Old Testament. At the Last Supper Jesus would take it up: “the new covenant in my blood.”

1. c. 627 B.C.Jeremiah begins preaching
2. 586 B.C.Jerusalem falls to Babylon
3. c. 20 B.C.Herod begins the Temple
4. 26 A.D.Pilate becomes prefect
5. This week’s scene: c. 30 A.D.Greeks ask to see Jesus

Enter the Temple’s outer court at Passover, days before the Passion, in the year 30 A.D. on the usual dating. The court is packed with pilgrims, and among them are some Greeks, probably God-fearers, Gentiles who worship Israel’s God. Walk with them to the low stone balustrade that rings the inner courts. Read the notice set into it, in Greek: any foreigner who goes farther will have himself to blame for the death that follows. This is as close as they can come.

Watch them turn to Philip, a man with a Greek name from Bethsaida in Galilee. “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” Philip goes to Andrew; Andrew and Philip go to Jesus. Follow them through the crowd. The Greeks wait behind you. Stand among the disciples, close enough to see His face, and listen to how He answers.

Encounter the Lord

Stand near Jesus in the crowded Temple courts. Some foreigners have come to Philip with a simple request: “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” Jesus answers with a strange image: a grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies.

If they want to see Him, they must look at the cross. Jesus does not pretend it is easy. “I am troubled now,” He says, and Hebrews tells of His loud cries and tears. But He does not ask to be saved from this hour; He came for it. His death is the seed of the new covenant Jeremiah promised, a covenant written on the heart. Every real life in Christ follows this pattern: what we let die for love becomes fruitful.

This week, choose one small way to “die” to yourself each day: a sacrifice of time, comfort or preference, offered quietly for someone else. Pray the Stations of the Cross once before Holy Week.

Know Your Faith

Christ’s Life Offered to the Father

From the first moment of His Incarnation, the Son embraced the Father’s plan of salvation (CCC 606). His whole life was inspired by the desire to embrace the Father’s plan: “For this purpose I have come to this hour” (CCC 607).

The Hour of His Glory

Above all in His death and Resurrection, Jesus accomplished the coming of His kingdom: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to myself” (CCC 542). His lifting up on the cross begins His lifting up in the Ascension (CCC 662).

The New Covenant

Through the prophets God formed His people in the hope of a new and everlasting covenant written on their hearts (CCC 64). In Jesus the Law is no longer written on tablets of stone but on the heart (CCC 580).

Taking Up the Cross

Christ calls His disciples to take up their cross and follow Him, and He associates us with His redeeming sacrifice (CCC 618).