March 17, 2024

5th Sunday in Lent (B)

We Just Wanted to See Him…He Wants More

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

In reading the Gospels did you ever ask, “Why did Jesus say such a thing or why did he act in such a way?” In today’s passage, the apostles ask Our Lord if he would be willing to receive visitors from Greece who were curious to meet him. They had come up for the Passover feast. St. John doesn’t tell us the reason they wished to see Jesus, but I think it a safe guess that they sought him out since it was very likely that they heard about the raising of Lazarus from the dead. It had caused quite a stir! But to this rather simple request, Our Lord gives a perplexing response.

Jesus appears to ignore the request and goes on to announce that his “hour” has arrived. In the Gospel of St. John, the “hour” means the climatic event of the Lord’s death. It is the time of the Lord’s glorification. We can imagine the Greeks saying, “All we asked was to see him. Why this odd soliloquy?

So how are we to understand the response of Jesus?

The arrival of the Greeks signaled the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecies that the Messiah would draw all nations and peoples to himself. It signaled that “the hour” had arrived when Jesus would be that grain of wheat that would die to produce new life. Good Friday, Calvary, is on the horizon. The Cross would be the means by which Jes
us would glorify the Father. The voice of the Eternal Father is heard confirming this fact.

Jesus also speaks about what is involved in following him. He is clear: discipleship is a paradox. “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life…will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves him must follow me, and where I am, there also will by servant be.” This is a reversal of our usual way of thinking. The way of the Master must also be the way of the disciple.

The world promotes “self-seeking” while Our Lord desires a “dying to self.” As we look honestly at ourselves and grow in the spiritual life, we come to realize that there are attitudes that we must strive to put to death within us. Msgr. Charles Pope, a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, identified a few of these and they form a good Lenten meditation:
 

• Ego: Deflate it from time to time.
• Desire for revenge: replace it with compassion
• Desire to control: Be docile, meek, let go
• Irrational fears: trust in God’s providence
• Hatred: work on forgiveness and charity
• Stubbornness: Be more accepting, flexible, Realize others can be right; I am not the center of the universe.
• Impatience: seek gentleness, be composed
• Greed: Open your clenched fist, be generous. There are no pockets in a shroud; No one sees a moving van behind a funeral procession.
• Worldliness: live simply; leave room for God and others.

While our bodies decline with time, as we die to self our souls grow ever stronger and vibrant.

St. John doesn’t tell us if the Greeks had the opportunity to see Jesus. But we meet Jesus daily in our prayer, in Scripture and indeed in his veiled but real Presence in the Eucharist. Meeting Jesus means to see him as the Savior who, in love for us, offered himself on the cross. Meeting Jesus is to embrace the paradox that true life is often found where we least expect it…in dying to self. Let us ask for the strength and conviction to do so.

A disciple dies to self because he or she believes there is joy on the other side of the cross. A disciple buries the old self every day because it keeps wanting to return. And so, today we pray, “Lord, help me to see the opportunities to follow you.” Help us put to death harmful ambitions and attitudes, our sinfulness and selfishness, to mortify our wrongheaded desires and decisions, so that we might be awakened to the new life you promise.