By Father James Rodriguez

AS CATHOLICS, WE adhere very closely to an old Latin saying: “lex orandi, lex credendi,” which, loosely translated, means “the law of prayer is the law of belief.”

Put another way, “we mean what say and say what we mean.” The rules around our worship and the way that we celebrate as believers say a lot about what is in our hearts.

Last weekend, the priest and deacon at your parish may have worn rose-colored vestments to indicate that, as today’s first reading opens: “The days are coming” (Jer 31:31). Indeed Holy Week is almost here, and our liturgy shows what should be going on behind the scenes – our preparation for the Sacrifice of the King.

In our Gospel reading, we are presented with the timeless words that indicate the beginning of this preparation: “We would like to see Jesus.” Without knowing it, these Greeks were articulating the desire of every human heart. We all want to see Him, even those of us that either do not know Him or deny Him outright. Deep down, we know that we are incomplete without Him, and our lives show it. Lex orandi, lex credendi.

Pope St. John Paul II, as part of his Theology of the Body, used to say that if we want to see Jesus, we must first let Him see us. Truly, coming to know Jesus requires absolute honesty. All too often we get caught up in the false self that we present to the outside world – the self we would like to be – and hide the person that we truly are. When we do this, we lose our way and even our very identities. To see Jesus means, as He Himself told us, to take up our crosses daily and follow Him, to face our sinfulness and weaknesses – indeed to embrace them – and thus be free to be ourselves.

Once we do this, we are like the grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies. No longer so worried about the opinion of others, our false self dies and this death “produces much fruit” as our true selves, made in His image, can rise free.

In the Letter to the Hebrews we hear echoes of this insight as we are told that Jesus “learned obedience from what he suffered.”

Anyone who has ever struggled with addiction – even the addiction of pleasing others – knows how painful it can be to let go. For these people, there often comes a point when the addiction begins to take over their lives, and they can either succumb to it or break free, which involves much suffering. This is almost impossible to do, yet the many survivors of addiction all attest to the fact

that they didn’t do it alone. Their suffering taught them obedience to what many recovery groups call a “higher power” Whom we know to be Christ Jesus the Lord.

It is He Who creates a clean heart in us, but we have to want it. We have to cry out like today’s psalmist, painfully aware of our need for help. We can only reach out with open hands – and we can only open our hands if we let go of the unhealthy things and people that we stubbornly hold on to. Lex orandi, lex credendi.

A Willing Spirit

In the depths of our guilt and shame, we can call out to Him Who alone can give us “the joy of salvation, and a willing spirit” so that we can “teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you” (Ps 51: 14-15).

It is this return to the Father that we so ardently desire. From Adam and Eve, to you and me, humanity has always sought to return home. Through the prophet Jeremiah, the Holy Spirit tells us as much: “I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts” (Jer 31:33).

As my classmate, Father Patrick Longalong, put it once when we were students: “We have a God-shaped hole in our hearts.”  This insight carries great weight because it points to the truth that only God can satisfy the longings of the human heart. Only He can make you happy. Better still, He wants to do this, but like any good Father, He is merciful and just. In mercy, He promises to “forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more” (Jer 31:34).

In justice, He allows us to feel the consequence of our choices. Together, these can lead us back to Him, Who will Himself be led to that hill where the law of our prayer meets the law of our belief. There, He reveals the love of God since “it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.”

May we meet Him there – and trusting in Him, be changed forever.

Readings for the Fifth Sunday of Lent:

Jeremiah 31: 31-34

Psalm 51: 3-4, 12-13, 14-15 Hebrews 5: 7-9

John 12: 20-33

Father James Rodriguez is the diocesan vocation director and teaches theology at Cathedral Prep and Seminary, Elmhurst.