Fifth Sunday of Lent (March 25^th 2012)     

John 12:20-30

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 When I think of the glory of God do I think of thrones, angels, choirs?

2. In what sense can the glory of God be understood in terms of his self-giving nature?

3. Is it easy or hard for me to appreciate that the self-giving of Jesus constitutes his real glory?

4. When we pray, do we ask God to remove our burdens, or do we ask to be given the strength to accept the burdens that life places on us?

"We should be aware that our hour will surely come too, the hour in which we must choose between saving our own skins, or trusting in God. When that hour comes, will we continue to hide behind the defensive barriers that we erect around us? Or will we open the doors of our prison and say: "This hour is upon me because the Father wishes to accomplish something in me". This Lent we still have time to say along with Jesus: "Father, I'm not going to ask you to save me from this hour! Glorify your name, make your works known through me!"

The glory of God does not consist in fame or recognition, but in an intrinsic trait of the divine nature

This passage presents us with the lead-up to Christ's passion as recounted by the Gospel of John. It make clear that what Christ goes through at the hour of his passion is something that is relevant for all of our lives. The text refers to a festival at which a number of Greeks are present. These Greeks had heard of Jesus and were looking for him. Philip – the Greek member among the apostles – and Andrew - the brother of Peter – are excited by this fact and go to tell Jesus. The word of his deeds had spread overseas! He was famous! Jesus replies by saying, "Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified". In saying this, Jesus appears at first to be going along with the triumphalism of the apostles. He seems to be saying, "I'm important now. The moment of my glory has come". But then he immediately pours cold water on the apostles' aspirations! "Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains alone, but if it dies it yields a rich harvest." What does the glory of Jesus consist in? The word glory in Hebrew, kabod, refers to the weight of something, the value that it has in itself. Glory does not consist in outward appearances but in something intrinsic to the person. To see the glory of God means to understand him truly. It does not simply refer to an experience of a spectacular manifestation of God, seated on magnificent thrones and surrounded by angels. The glory of God is something that can only be appreciated through deep reflection and experience.

The glory of God consists in his capacity to empty himself for others

This passage tells us that the time had come for the Son of Man to make his intrinsic value – his glory – known. How will he achieve this? Through his capacity to sacrifice his life, to give himself completely. This is what the nature of God consists in. God's nature is not egocentric but is love itself. It is not in the nature of God to emphasize his own self. That is a human tendency. Humans seek to base their worth on their own identity and capabilities. That which reveals the true nature of God is his ability to annihilate himself, to lose himself, to donate his very being, to produce fruit by means of his own death. The absurd-sounding mystery of Easter is that life in abundance comes forth from the nullification of oneself. According to ordinary human thinking, when one gives away everything, then all is over; nothing is left; the end has come. But the areas of our life in which we empty ourselves become – in Christ – the places where the power of God makes itself present.

Jesus leads us in the way of glory, which is the way of self-giving

What do we really look for from our friends, relatives, colleagues? Deep down we wonder, subconsciously, if this person is willing to extend himself in a genuine way for my good. We discover love when we encounter someone who is willing to give himself on my account. At the end of our lives, if we ask ourselves if we have ever loved someone truly, then we are really asking ourselves if we have given ourselves completely, or if we have retained possession of ourselves in this egocentric sense. Did we continue to clasp our fists tightly in order to hold onto our possessions, or did we open our hands and give freely to others? The Lord Jesus teaches us this art of giving that terrifies us. "Whoever loves his life will lose it, but he who hates his life will keep it". Jesus leads us in a way of life that is of a different quality altogether than our previous existence. Easter teaches us that the glory of God has nothing to do with fame and recognition, and everything to do with the capacity to love.

When we pray, do we ask God to remove our burdens, or do we ask to be given the strength to accept the burdens that life places on us?

At this point the Gospel of John presents us with a scene that in the other Gospels occurs in the Garden of Gethsemane. "My soul is troubled and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour?" Matthew, Mark and Luke recount the story of Jesus in the Garden asking if he could be spared the cup of suffering, but he nevertheless bows to the will of the Father. John expresses this event in another way. Jesus is the grain of wheat that must die, and his flesh is rebelling against the very thought. Jesus truly had human flesh, and his pain was genuine and complete. His flesh was crying out "No! No! No!", wishing to be preserved from this hour, but Jesus knew that he had come precisely for this hour.

            We should be aware that our hour will surely come too, the hour in which we must choose between saving our own skins, or trusting in God. When that hour comes, will we continue to hide behind the defensive barriers that we erect around us? Or will we open the doors of our prison and say: "This hour is upon me because the Father wishes to accomplish something in me". This Lent we still have time to say along with Jesus: "Father, I'm not going to ask you to save me from this hour! Glorify your name, make your works known through me!" How often, when confronted by difficult moments in life, do we say, "Father, save me from this hour!" Often our prayers are like this because the God we adore is not the God of Jesus Christ. We ask God to do our will, and we get angry if he doesn't comply. The God of Jesus is the one to whom we must entrust ourselves saying, "Father, make your glory known", and we must abandon ourselves to his will. It would be a great pity to arrive at Easter without having attempted to put this into practice. And it would be poor show if after Easter we continue to attend every ceremony that is going on in church, merely listening to every homily that is being preached, without making the essential leap. We must lower our defensive systems, relinquish the fearful grip on our own lives, and place them instead in the provident hands of God. What might God do with our lives? We were not born to save ourselves from real life, but to allow ourselves to be guided to eternal life, and to experience one day the genuine glory of God.