Fifth Sunday of Lent – Year B: “Life is a gift that we deserve by giving it out”

“We should like to see Jesus!”

Readings: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 50; Hebrews 5:7-9
John 12:20-33: “Now the hour has come!”

The fifth Sunday of Lent is an immediate preparation for Easter. Next Sunday we will celebrate Palm Sunday and the account of the Passion and Death of Jesus will be proclaimed. Today’s gospel, taken from St John, is meant to introduce us into the mystery that is approaching, so that we may experience it, not as spectators, but as disciples. It is Jesus himself who reveals to us the meaning of what is about to happen.

We should like to see Jesus!

We are at the last Passover of the Lord and immediately after his “triumphal” entry into Jerusalem. The city was full of pilgrims, who had come from all parts. The gospel passage speaks of a group of Greek-speaking proselytes who, hearing about Jesus, would like to see him, that is, to know him. Not knowing Aramaic, they speak to Philip who also speaks to Andrew. The two are the only ones of the group of Twelve who bear a Greek name and certainly knew some Greek. “We should like to see Jesus” is their request, and their and our “prayer”! Every man and woman carries this prayer in the innermost depths of his or her heart: “Your face, O Lord, I seek” (Psalm 27:8).

Salvation comes through looking!

The whole of John’s gospel winds between the invitation to go to Jesus to see: “Come and see!” (1:39) and the joyful experience of the disciples: “We have seen the Lord!” (20:25), concluding with the final beatitude: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed!” (20:29). If in the first Covenant the sense of hearing was the privileged one in the relationship with God, in the second Covenant it is that of vision. The entire gospel of John is permeated by the sense of vision. We find about 150 words related to this sense. Impressive! From “seeing” and “not seeing” passes both the tragic and dark drama of human history and the trail of light, joy and life that runs through it! Salvation passes through the gaze! The story begins with God’s complacent gaze towards his creation, repeated seven times: “And God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1) and ends with man’s contemplative and ecstatic gaze before the new creation: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth… And I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven, from God, ready as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:1-2). Then, yes, what Qohelet says will come true: “The eye shall not be satisfied with looking, nor the ear with hearing” (1:8).

Philip and Andrew are you and me!

The men and women of today are looking for Jesus, in a variety of ways, even in the lost on the way of the senses. And they turn to us to see him and to know him. But we find it difficult to understand their questions because we do not speak their “language”. Only by living immersed in this humanity, in its culture and history, in its hopes and fears, will we be able to interpret their search. The language they understand is not that of sermons, nor of catechism, but that of the senses and of testimony. Only if we ourselves have heard, touched and seen the Lord will we be able to tell them:
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we haveseen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us” (1 John 1:1-3).

Now the hour has come!

Jesus’ response to the Greeks’ request is quite disconcerting: “Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you, most solemnly, unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest… And when I am lifted up [on the cross] from the earth, I shall draw all men to myself”. Jesus in the Greeks’ request already sees the first fruits of the extraordinary fruitfulness of the “Grain of wheat”. Jesus lived in anticipation of this “hour”, but nevertheless experiences, he too like us, the perturbation and anguish before the prospect of his imminent death: “Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say: Father, save me from this hour? But it was for this very reason that I have come to this hour”. The synoptics recount this hour of Gethsemane in far more dramatic tones!

The law of the “grain of wheat” concerns the life of every living being, but we find it difficult to accept it. We would like to remain a flower blossomed in the fullness of its beauty in an eternal spring. Having reached the ripe fruit of summer, we cling to the tree of life, in a desperate effort to endure the autumn and not fall to the ground… Instead, the purpose of life is to become an autumn fruit! “To feel the juicy soul of the fruit within oneself: the same sweetness, the same golden transparency, the same thirst to fall. To detach oneself, not from pride or weariness, but from excess weight and sap. Detach oneself like an autumn fruit…. Learn the “detachment” of the ripe fruit, the fragility of fullness. A drop of pity, a thrill of love make the inebriated cup of autumn overflow; the slightest bump throws the fruit swollen with aromas and sunshine to the ground” (Gustave Thibon, French philosopher).

For the weekly reflection:
During this last week of Lent, let us ask for the grace of the purification of the senses, especially that of sight, perhaps repeating in prayer, the cry of Bartimaeus, the blind man of Jericho, with his same confidence and determination: “Rabbuni, let me see again!” (Mark 10:46-52). Only in this way can we too follow Jesus on the road to Jerusalem!
Manuel João Pereira Correia, MCCJ
Verona, March 2024

“Life is a gift that we deserve by giving it out”

A Commentary on  John 12, 20-33

On our way towards the Holy Week, the most important week in the liturgical year and in Christian life, we are now at the fifth Sunday of Lent. And we read John chapter 12, before getting into the great story of the Passion that begins with Jesus washing the feet of his disciples.

This passage of John’s Gospel presents Jesus in Jerusalem, taking part at the celebrations of a Hebrew feast, together with people coming from several parts of the world. Among those people there were some “Greeks” who wanted to know Jesus, who takes the opportunity to pronounce a brief but very meaningful speech. Let us see:

1) “We want to see Jesus”

First of all, let us put our attention on those “Greeks” that wanted to see Jesus. As a matter of fact, when the evangelist writes this Gospel, there were already communities of disciples, Christians, that came from that “Greek” culture, which was de dominant culture of the time, as much as it happens with our today’s “Global-English” culture. This presence of Greek disciples among the followers of Jesus was, in fact, a great cultural and religious jump forward, since Jesus was a Hebrew and stared preaching to them. The proposal of human and spiritual renewal, that Jesus meant for the Hebrews in the first place, became very soon a proposal for other peoples, belonging to other cultures and religious systems.

From this first “opening”, Christian communities opened themselves more and more to new peoples, crossing continuously new frontiers: in Asia, in Europe, in America, in Africa… In every new stage of human history, during the last twenty centuries, new peoples said: “We want to see Jesus”. And after those first two missionaries, Andrew and Philip, many others helped people to encounter Jesus: Paul, Augustin, Patrice, Francis Xavier, Daniel Comboni… and many others.

We are convinced that also today there are many other people and human groups that, over any geographical or cultural frontier, wish to know Jesus, not as theological or philosophical figure, but as a real Person that talks to the heart of every person and every culture; a Person that brings to our life truth, free pardon, unconditional  love, a proposal of brotherhood for all humanity and, and a special clarity about God the Father…

Today, as yesterday, humanity is in need of new “Andrew and Philip”, new missionaries, people who know Jesus personally (not only from the books, but from their experience of life), people who have found the “treasure” that the person of Jesus represents for themselves and for others, people ready to act as “facilitators” so that others come to enjoy the Word, the Love and the Person of Jesus.

2) Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies…

When the “Greeks” are introduced to him, Jesus pronounces a brief speech that may seem enigmatic to some, but for me is quite clear and meaningful, if we pay the due attention to it. Let us see:

1. “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified.”  Here and in other parts of the Gospel Jesus talks about his “hour” and his “glory”. I think that in our today’s language, we could speak of “victory”, “esteem”, “acknowledgement”… Jesus, as all of us, needs esteem and acknowledgement. But the big difference is that the “glory” He is looking for is not vainglory or self-boosting; He looks for the acknowledgement that comes from his Father. And He shares this acknowledgement with the disciples, the simple ones, the poor, those who put their trust in the Father.
2. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit”. This is a well- known Jesus’ sentence with a clear meaning: life springs out of sacrifice; glory and triumph comes out of enduring… In the mouth of Jesus, this words speak clearly of his death, that He is ready to accept in the confidence that out of his death will spring new life for humanity.
3. “He who loves his life, loses it…”.  The example of the grain of wheat works for Jesus, but also for all of us. The sentence reminds us of the parable of the talents, in which the lazy servant is rebuked for not making good use of the talent received. Life cannot be lived in fear and laziness. It must be lived with generosity, given up in service and love. As a poet said, “life is a gift that we deserve by giving it out”.

These words of Jesus are not only “beautiful” words, but a source of real life, words that come from His own experience of love and obedience to the Father for the benefit of all mankind. Jesus was not afraid to give Himself up to the point of death. He was able to go to death, confident that the Father will transform His death into a source of new life for humanity, as in fact it is happening in us and around us.

It is this new life in Jesus that we celebrate this Sunday listening to the Word, sharing our way with other disciples in the Community, sharing the Eucharist, serving others in the family, in our working place, in society, going out to the poor or whoever is in need near us or far away…

As disciples missionaries we know that the best way to “gain” our life is to give it up, as Jesus did.
Fr.  Antonio Villarino, MCCJ