Reflection on Today’s Gospel – Jn 12:20-33
"Sir, we would like to see Jesus"
Today's Gospel begins with a request by the Greeks to the Apostle Philip: " Sir, we would like to see Jesus".
Contemplating the face of Jesus was defined by John Paul II as the most important goal of Christians for the third millennium. The Pope did not speak first of all about changing the world, fighting against injustice, evil and suffering. But about contemplating Jesus.
Contemplating Jesus, suffering and glorious, is the power, the strength to follow Him in life. We will to some extent experience or penetrate the mystery of the "personality of God" when we agree to see Him in Jesus Christ by faith. The person of Jesus, His life, words, deeds, His mercy, goodness, love are the most perfect reflection of the face and heart of God.
Only Jesus actually saw God because he himself is God. He rests in the heart of God. He is in the most intimate relationship with the Father. And this Jesus, who is the reflection of the Father, became man, took flesh, entered our history. By contemplating his earthly life, his words and deeds, we can grasp something of the life of the unfathomable mystery of the Father. In Jesus, we humans see God and His love. And in Jesus we gain an intimate relationship with the Father. In him, we can, somehow, rest in the Father's heart. By contemplating the heart of Jesus, we experience to a limited extent what St. John said - we see the glory of God (cf. Jn 1:14).
In response to the request of the Greeks, Jesus announces his suffering, passion, death and resurrection. Thanks to these events, He will attract everyone to Himself (save). It is like a seed that must die to bear a hundredfold harvest. He must "lose earthly life" in order to gain a new, glorified and transformed life.
The dying seed makes us realize that what is most beautiful and precious is born in pain and suffering. There is no love without suffering. True love is dying to selfishness, "piercing your own heart" and giving it to others. "Dying of our EGO" is always painful and leaves a wound. But there is no love without it. There is selfishness. By "dying to ourselves" we imitate Christ, we come closer to His love and love for others.
What would I say if a man came up to me and asked, like Philip, "I want to see Jesus! Show me the face of God!"
One more thought
People look for God, they want to see Him, to know Him, and disappointed by difficulties they fall into doubts and give up. In the Old Testament, God gave people a moral law, summarized by the ten commandments. By keeping this law, the Jews thought they would find God and live-in covenant with Him. However, man, despite theoretically good will, does not keep God's commandments. The tangible manifestation of this infidelity are departures from Him, stigmatized by the prophets, and materially confirmed by the fall of Jerusalem and the loss of the temple during the Babylonian invasion. Following this invasion, the prophet Jeremiah heralds the coming of a new time when God will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
Not like the covenant He made with their ancestors when He took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke this covenant despite being their Ruler (Jer 31: 31-32). Through Jeremiah, God solemnly announces: this will be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after these days:” I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (cf. Jer 31:33). He says that thanks to this change of heart, thanks to the inscription of the moral law in it, instead of giving on tablets of stone to be kept, a man will not have to wonder where and how to know God, because everyone from the smallest to the greatest will know Him (cf. Jer 31:34). This knowledge will be related to the cleansing of sins that God will forgive so firmly that he will not even remember them anymore. Therefore, we can be 24/7 in the father's house and enjoy the presence of Jesus.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george