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Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast. Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus. But Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor."
- John 12:20-26
In the Gospel, the setting is now the beginning of Holy Week. It is the day we now commemorate as Palm Sunday. Many people are looking to see Jesus at the Passover festival in Jerusalem. A great many knew that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also, because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus. The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: "Hosanna! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!' The King of Israel!" Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: "Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt." His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him. Therefore the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead, bore witness. For this reason the people also met Him, because they heard that He had done this sign. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, "You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!"
Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast. Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus. My study bible explains that these Greeks are Gentiles who are attracted to Judaism, "either God-fearing or full proselytes, who came to participate in the Passover festivities." Philip is from Bethsaida, as the text points out, a fishing town close to Capernaum in Galilee, whose common working language for commerce among those from various nations and native mixed population was Greek.
But Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified." My study bible says that the hour that has come is "the great hour of salvation through the death and Resurrection of Jesus, leading to the salvation of the human race."
"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor." A note here says, "the image of the grain of wheat dying in order to bear fruit signifies that Christ will die in order to give life, a principle of self-sacrifice which applies to all those who follow the way of Christ."
Somehow the Greeks coming from other nations, other people, who are attracted to Judaism, perhaps as proselytes, triggers Jesus' acknowledgement that His hour has come. These Greek speakers have come for the Passover festival at the temple, but their request to see Jesus is a sign of "all the world coming to Him," as the Pharisees exclaimed in yesterday's reading. It's no coincidence, then, that these texts were written in Greek, the world language of the time, the common language of trade, international relations, and government. For many centuries, the language of the Old Testament was also Greek (Septuagint), as studied by rabbis and Jewish scholars. But the presence of these outsiders seeking Jesus signals that the Gospel will go out to all the world, in the common language of the time. Like Moses, who did not live to enter the promised land, Jesus knows that His death is at hand. But it is a death for a purpose, a planting of a seed, something that will grow to nurture all the world, to "produce much grain." By His words, Jesus signals to us how we must think of what is to come, His Passion and death at Jerusalem. His sacrifice is an investment, if we wish to think of it that way. It is the thing that will nurture the world, and the cross, an instrument of death, transformed into a symbol of Resurrection and hope of renewal, salvation for the world. Let us remember not only His extraordinary act for all of us, but the astonishing "revolutionary" nature of what He is about to do. His sacrifice is to create something new, a Church which gathers those of all the world ("neither Jew nor Greek"), giving a new identity to each of us, and a salvation that promises in us new life. Let us remember when we're called to sacrifice something in life, to give up something we may love, that following Him asks of us always to go on to this new life, a life of abundance. We can't predict what that will be and how it will look, even so much as Jesus' disciples at this moment in the Gospel could not possibly foresee what the Church would be and where they are headed. But we know we are called, and we know that this gift of new life, of the transcendence of salvation, depends upon our understanding of this act, and how He calls us all to see our own lives in the world. At every change and every loss in life, let us remember how we are called, the abundance into which we are continually born again, and His point of view He calls each of us to share.
