5^th Sunday of Lent

Jer. 31: 31-34; Psalm 50; Heb. 5: 7-9; John 12:20-33

Read: “In those days, amongst those that went up to Jerusalem to worship God at the festival were some Greeks. They approached Philip …. and put this request to him ‘Sir, we would like to see Jesus.’” And Jesus replied to them: ”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.”

Reflect: “We would like to see Jesus”. This was not simply a case of curiosity to see he who all were looking for because he had brought back Lazarus from the dead. In the Gospel according to John, the verb ‘to see’ means to get to know well a person. These Greeks were not interested in the Jesus’ features, how he was dressed nor how he presented himself. What they wished was to get to know his identity and whether he was able to give them a new meaning of their lives. By what he said, Jesus shows them who he really was. He makes a proposition which, for the Greek mentality, and probably for us also as today’s beings, appears to be an absurd proposition: life reaches its acme when it is enveloped in love. He is the first to offer himself, and this is his glory. Jesus explains to the Greeks and to us, what is the true glory: “if a wheat grain does not fall on the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest”.

Pray: Teach us Lord so that, like you, obedient to the will of the Father, we give ourselves to You and to our brethren.

Act: Let us be on our guard that we do not fall for the subtle temptation that we find ourselves carrying out religious practices without being truly close to Christ in our faith. That we do not content ourselves only with prayer, rituals and celebrations and even through these …….. we do the least possible and with doubts. The face that Jesus shows us of himself, demands from us a total commitment. His proposition “is a scandal to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks”. (1 Corint. 1:22), but the fact remains that it is only that person who, like Jesus, dies for his brethren is, according to God, successful.