Commentary to the 5th Sunday of Lent – Year B

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THE TEXT BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPTION OF THE VIDEO COMMENTARY BY FR. FERNANDO  ARMELLINI 

A good Sunday to all.  

The picture in the background helps us to understand the context in which the episode  narrated in today's gospel passage is set. We see that there is a multitude of pilgrims who are  on top of the Mount of Olives and they are contemplating the stupendous esplanade of the  temple, with the sanctuary in the middle; the smoke of the burnt offerings is seen ascending  to heaven and they are moved because from there they hear the echo of the songs, of the  music interpreted by the Levites, the sound of the trumpets, the harps, the flutes...  

It is about these pilgrims that we want to reflect. These are the preparatory days to the  feast of the Passover and it will be the last Passover lived by Jesus because on the eve of this  feast, he will be executed. Who are these pilgrims? They come from all over the world, most  of them are made up of by observant Jews, but among them there are also pagans; they are  sympathizers of the Jewish religion. The New Testament speaks of them calling them  proselytes, they also attend the synagogue but only to listen the wisdom contained in the  Scriptures; they have not yet made up their minds to take the last step which will enable them  to become full Jews, that is, to become circumcised.  

Today's Gospel passage tells us about a group of these proselytes who came to Jerusalem  for the Passover. The evangelist calls them 'Greeks' because they are people who come from  outside and do not know Hebrew or Aramaic, but speak only Greek, which was the common  spoken language of that time. Now let's hear who they are and why they came to Jerusalem. 

"Now there were some Greek among those who had come up to worship at the feast. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, ‘Sir, we would like to  see Jesus.’ Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.”  

The proselytes mentioned in today's Gospel have come to Jerusalem for worship, says  the evangelist, and they tried to come near the sanctuary because it was in the sanctuary that  the Lord was worshipped.  

In the esplanade of the temple anyone could enter, even pagans, but at a certain moment  they found themselves in front of a guard-rail of one and a half meters high on which there  were 13 inscriptions in Greek which threatened with the death penalty for those who dared  to cross that barrier if they were not Jews. That's why they could not approach the sanctuary.  One of these thirteen inscriptions is in the museum of the Ancient East in Istanbul and it is  not improbable that the group of pilgrims of whom we are speaking were blocked just in front  of this inscription.  

They were devout people, but they could not approach the sanctuary. If we had been on  the esplanade we could have seen in their face the disappointment for not being able to  contemplate the face of the Lord in that sanctuary. Certainly, they knew and remembered  Psalm 27 because they were people who frequented the synagogue and the psalmist said: "I  ask but one thing of the Lord, that I may spend all my days in his house, to contemplate the  beauty of the Lord, to admire his temple.’ They could not approach this sanctuary.  

We don't know through whom, but this group of Greeks heard about Jesus and they felt  an impulse to go to the sanctuary that led them to go to him and in fact we see them walking  away from that handrail and going in search of Jesus. They don't know that, but it is the Spirit  that leads them to the new and true sanctuary where they can really meet the Lord. Whoever  sees the stupendous construction of the sanctuary beholds a material building, made of  marble, covered with gold, but he who encounters the new sanctuary which is Jesus, where  God is really present then he has the good fortune to really contemplate the face of God.  

And now, through the spiritual journey made by these Greeks, the evangelist narrates  our story, how each one of us comes to see the face of the Lord, to behold the face of God.  We can only behold it if we are led into this new sanctuary that is Jesus. What do these Greeks  do? They approach Philip who was from Bethsaida in Galilee.  

Here is the first message: to get to the new sanctuary you have to be accompanied by  someone who has actually met and seen the Lord. They turn to Philip. Why? Philip a Greek  name and then from Bethsaida in Galilee therefore a frontier place where the mentality is  more open, they have no qualms if they talk to a pagans and Philip certainly speaks some  Greek and they pray to him saying, "Lord we want to see Jesus."  

This prayer is wonderful and every one of us should pray it. When we meet someone who  has really seen who Jesus is, has contemplated him, has been then captivated by his person,  we should also ask him to let us see Jesus to know who he is. They want to see Jesus, but  there is a subtlety here to be noted: the Greek verb that's used, there are two verbs to refer  to seeing. A simpler verb, 'blepei', means to see what each one can observe from the outside.  But there's another verb, 'orao', which means to see in depth, to grasp who you really are.  There is a simple external seeing and there is, besides seeing, a grasping of the identity of  what we are seeing.  

We've all been, for example, at a station with a friend who, watching someone passing  by with a suitcase, says: "Do you know who that person is over there?" We might answer:  "One of the many who have a suitcase..." "NO, he is the Nobel Prize winner." One has seen -'blepein'; the other has seen 'orao'. He has seen what the identity of that person is. There is  also a simple outward appearance of Jesus, a carpenter, son of Joseph, who is able to do  miracles, but we are still at the stage of the outward appearance; we have not yet grasped  his identity and let's be careful because we may also be people who have only seen the  outward appearance of the person of Jesus, sympathetic and attractive, but perhaps we have  not grasped his true identity.  

Let's take some examples from the gospels so we can understand this difference. We find  a person who wanted to see Jesus: Herod Antipas; he had heard about him, he was the star  of the moment, he had heard that he was doing wonders and he had the opportunity to meet  him when Pilate sent him just at the time of Passover, and when he saw him he was very  happy and expected to see some prodigy. Jesus did not deign to give him an answer and Herod  was utterly disappointed; and the evangelist Luke expresses well the judgment which he gave  with a very strong Greek verb '?ξουθεν?ο' = 'exuzeneo' (Lk 23:11) which means that he  considered him a nobody, was disappointed because he looked only at Jesus' outward  appearance. For Herod, he was a curiosity, he was not interested in knowing the true identity  of Jesus, he stopped at the outward appearance and this was a disappointment to him.  

Let's be careful because you can contemplate the crucifix and get fixated at reflecting on  the external aspect: how much Jesus suffered... some preachers of the past, in the long Good  Friday sermon, used to dwell on all the details to describe the pains that Jesus had to endure  and when they succeeded in making their listeners weep, they thought they had given a great  sermon. They had not grasped the identity of Jesus, they had not understood that his was a  passion of love. You really see Jesus when, on that crucifix, you grasp the glory of the Father  who was able to manifest in Jesus how much he loves us. If you don't grasp this love you have  not grasped his identity. We get fixated on the external aspects.  

We remember Zacchaeus, on the other hand, very differently. He wanted to see Jesus,  but not as Herod Antipas, he wanted to see Jesus 'who Jesus is.' 'Perhaps one who will solve  my inner restlessness...' and he seeks him out because he can give meaning to his life. Or the  disciples of the Baptist who ask Jesus “where do you live?” And Jesus answers "Come and  see". It was Jesus' invitation not to see where his house was, he had no house.... but to know  his true identity.  

The proselytes in our passage are not looking for Jesus because he is famous, to ask for  his autograph. They are seekers of truth, of love, of wisdom, they are looking for someone to  help them, to give meaning to their lives. And this prayer that they pray to Philip, "we want  to see Jesus," should be ours. We are listening to the gospel according to John; we don't  address Philip, but there must be somebody who allows us to see Jesus, in our case it is not  Philip, it is John.  

The gospel of John is presented as the work of a witness who affirms and refers what he  has seen. In the prologue, it says: "The Word became flesh, the Word through whom God was  revealed, became one of us, and we have seen his glory." This is what John says: I write to  you what I have seen. Then John picks up the experience in his first letter with that wonderful  beginning in which he expresses all the emotion of having known the Word of God made  flesh: "That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have  seen with our eyes, that which we have looked upon and our hands have touched, is that  which we proclaim to you, the Word of life.”  

Philip does not immediately bring these people to Jesus. Philip goes to tell Andrew, and  then together with Andrew they go to tell Jesus. Why doesn't Philip lead these Greeks directly  to Jesus? Philip was a very determined person; let's remember that after meeting Jesus he meets Nathanael who tells him we have found the one of whom Moses wrote in the law and  the prophets: Jesus the son of Joseph, of Nazareth. Philip had seen only the outward  appearance of Jesus and had no difficulty in speaking of him, but when one knows who Jesus  really is, you don't immediately begin to talk about him, you hesitate a little bit and you need  support of someone else and Philip goes to Andrew. Andrew is another one of the 12 who  has a Greek name and together they go to Jesus.  

You can see how one finds oneself in trouble when someone asks us to actually see Jesus.  If we have to go by the facts it's very simple, but when we go to the real identity of Jesus we  run into difficulties, perhaps because we have not really seen him. So, we know very little  about him because if we had really seen him, if we had fallen in love with him, we would talk  about him immediately with conviction and enthusiasm because we would like those who  listen to us to experience the joy with us of having found a treasure, the love of our life.  

Let us listen to Jesus' response to Philip and Andrew:  

“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless  a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it  produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world  will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there  also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.”  

We were certainly a little surprised by an answer that Jesus gave to Philip and Andrew.  The two disciples had gone to tell him that 'there is a group of Greeks who want to see you.'  Instead of going to meet with the Greeks, Jesus shows the two disciples his face, his true  identity. Because, the disciples should see and know him well before they set out to show the  face of Jesus to the Greeks. Those two so far have seen many things, many aspects of the  person of Jesus, but they have not yet accepted his true identity.  

We are those two disciples now. It is to us that Jesus wants to reveal himself because if  one day, as it happened to Philip and Andrew, someone says to us 'show us Jesus' show us his  true face, we have to have seen his face first in order to be able to show it to whoever wants  to see it. And so now let us listen to what Jesus tells us about himself: "The hour has come for  the Son of Man to be glorified." What is this hour? The evangelist John spoke of it from the  beginning. At Cana, Jesus says, 'my hour is not come,' then at the feast of the Tents, in chapter  7 of the Gospel, Jesus is in Jerusalem, and the evangelist says that they were trying to seize  Jesus, they wanted to take him out of the way, but no one laid hands on him, because ‘his  hour had not come.'  

Now, what is this hour, this moment that is remembered and that is so important? In  chapter 8, that is, immediately after, at the end of a heated discussion in the temple with the  scribes and Pharisees, the evangelist points out that no one arrested him because 'his hour  had not yet come.' Now Jesus says: "my hour is come" - the hour when the Son of Man is  glorified. What is this glory that he is now called to display? The narrative comes immediately  after the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, when it was a glorious moment and all the people  shouted: 'blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel.' Such a glorious  moment that troubled the scribes and Pharisees who said 'all the world follows him' … this is  what they would have wished for themselves. This is the glory of this world, when everybody  applauds you. It was not that time, it was not that hour when the Son of Man is glorified.  

When is the glory of God? The glory of God is when he can show who he really is, he is  love. When he can show how much he loves, that's the glorious moment; God's glory is when he shows how much he loves all of us. The Father has manifested this glory in its fullness in  Jesus; he is the revelation of the true face of God, of the glorious face of God because his  whole life was a manifestation of this love. He put himself at the service of those in need, he  healed the sick. Jesus revealed to sinners who were despised and outcast by the pure that  God loves them, welcomes them, feasts with them. Jesus goes in search of the lepers, the  most marginalized of the Israeli society, who had to live far away, and he caresses them.  

Here is the love of God. Every action of Jesus showed the glory of God which is love. When  they wanted to stone the adulteress, Jesus shows the glory of God by welcoming the  adulteress, not condemning her. The manifestation of this loving face of God destroys a  diabolical presentation of a God who needs to be served by man. God did not create man to  be served. It is exactly the opposite: God is love because HE is the servant of people.  Therefore, the whole life of Jesus was a revelation of this glory of God, of what service is. For  us glorious is the one who allows himself to be served. For God, it is the opposite.  

God shows his glory when he serves us. Now the time has come to show in fullness,  without possibility of misinterpretation, this true identity of Jesus, the ultimate revealer of  God's glory. What has happened so far is only an introduction, a preparation for this full  revelation that will happen in this hour.  

And he tells us now with a comparison: “unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and  dies it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies (and it is an apparent death), it produces  much fruit.” It is the image that tells us what happens to the seed; when it is placed in the  ground it disappears, it seems to die, but in reality, it explodes the fullness of life. That is what  is happening now, in this hour, with Jesus’ life. ‘If I withhold it, it dies, but if I give it now out  of love, in this hour it will be an explosion of life.’  

And he continues: "Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world  will preserve it for eternal life.” What does it mean? What does it mean to hate life? Life is  like that; it is not a good that I can cling to; at any moment life is gone like water from my  hands. Every moment that passes is life lost. People want to hold on to life... how do they do  it? Some say, 'I cling to it because I enjoy it.' Jesus says 'that way you lose it.' If, instead, you  want to keep it, donate it, transform it into love. No one can touch love because love is divine  life, it is the life of the Eternal and no one can erase it.  

That is what Jesus says: 'he who loves life' - he means: 'he who keeps it selfishly for  himself loses it'; who, on the other hand, 'hates his life' and What does it mean to hate life in  order to keep it? It means to donate it. Let's try to think - let's give some examples to help us  understand. The first one, very simple: we all know what happens when one fall in love with  someone, he or she starts to say 'no' to yourself in order to be able to to be appreciated by  the other. To tune in to the other person. To do what the other person likes; what is life and  joy for the other person you have to be able to say 'no' to yourself, and when two people  meet, and they don't know how to say 'no' to each other, the couple ends soon. When two  people get married, they have to start saying 'no' to each other, to themselves, to their own  selfishness, to make the other person happy, and by the time the children are born, how many  'nos' have the parents got to say, not because it's nice to say 'no,' but because it's a form of  death, of renunciation. The father every week has a meeting with his friends, a soccer game,  but now there is the son who has to do his homework, so 'no' game. Multiply the  circumstances you who know very well when this 'no' comes to your life.  

But they are 'no' for love, for life. If one does not say these 'no,' one does not know how  to renounce one's own selfishness, to his own choices, he does not build love, he loses his  life. If, on the other hand, one transforms it into love, one preserves it. What did Jesus do? He gave his life for love. If he had kept it for himself, it was death. He gave it. Let us take another  example, that of Maximilian Kolbe: he gave his life for the life of a father of a family, he did  not keep it for himself, he transformed it into love. He was also a manifestation of the glory  of God who is love.  

And then he continues: "Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also  will my servant be.” He is showing us who Jesus is; he says he does not want servants, he does  not want to be served by anyone, he is a servant.  

What does it mean 'whosoever serves me'? In the bible, servant is the most honorific title  we find because it is reserved only to great persons, to Moses, to St. Paul, even to Mary 'the  servant of the Lord.' They are those people who have put their whole life at the service of  God's plan, of his plan of love. This means 'if one wants to serve me': if you want to be involved  in this project, which is the surrender of oneself, follow me, follow me where I go, to give life.  And the disciple must be willing to give his life even for those who have wronged him, the  utmost of love.  

"And where I am shall my servant be." Where is Jesus? Let us read Matthew chapter 25  and we will immediately understand where he is, where he is waiting for us to serve: the one  who is hungry, the one who is thirsty, the one who is naked, the one who needs to be housed,  he who is in prison... 'it was I' says Jesus, who was waiting for you to come and serve me, as  one in need of love and you came to give your life for these people who needed you.  

"The Father will honor whoever serves me.” What does it mean to honor? In Hebrew  honor is said 'kavod'. 'Keved' (? ?????? ( means something heavy, something that weighs, not  something that is carried away by the wind. We know very well what is the difference  between the wheat is the chaff. When the wheat is sifted, the grain remains and the chaff is  carried away by the wind. When the judgment of God comes, the honor of people, the  applauses, and these appearances of glory are like chaff, swept away by the wind. What is  left? What is the weight, the glory, that which God honors? It is love; he who has given life,  receives then this approval of the heavenly Father.  

Now we understand the meaning of the Eucharist. Here I want to make a reference. Jesus,  at the end of his life, when he presented his whole story, what did he choose? 'I have become  bread.' He took bread and he said 'this is me.' Here is the crushed grain of wheat that was not  afraid to go into the ground because he knew that this is an apparent death, death to  selfishness, and it is life. It is the invitation in the Eucharist, 'take and eat,' that is, assimilate  this story of mine. This is the Eucharist, and only this.  

Therefore, to donate life. It frightens us because instinctively we want to keep it for  ourselves. The death that frightens us, frightened Jesus. What did the gift of his life cost him?  Did it cost him nothing... or did it also cost him to make this choice to give up all of himself?  Let us listen:  

“’I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But it was  for this purpose that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from  heaven, ‘I have glorified it and will glorify it again.’ The crowd there heard it and said it was  thunder; but others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ Jesus answered and said, ‘This voice  did not come for my sake but for yours. Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the  ruler of this world will be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw  everyone to myself.’ He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.”

Now Jesus says: "I am troubled now." Jesus is frightened. The Greek verb used by the  evangelist is 'tarasein' (τετ?ρακται), indicating the agitation of the waves of the sea. This is  the inner situation that Jesus lives. He is afraid as everyone is afraid of death; he would like  to avoid it. A premature death, in the prime of life, violent, absurd, abandoned by all, even by  his friends, delivered by one of his disciples, therefore, victim of hatred.  

Here is the inner drama of Jesus and he wonders: What can I say at this moment... ask  the Father to save me from this hour? But I have come for this very hour, for it is in this very  hour that the supreme revelation of the love of God will take place and I have to go through  it.' Jesus could have run away, he had already done it other times when his hour had not  come, but now is the time to manifest this supreme love. And he prays a prayer, "Father, give  glory to your Name." 'Through me show forth your glory.' It is Jesus' acceptance of the  Father's plan that goes by the greatest crime committed by people.  

“Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it and will glorify it again.’” Again, this  voice from heaven which in rabbinic language is to say how God judges that moment. God  saw that Jesus, the Son, had glorified him throughout his life showing how much he loves and  now he glorifies him again, that is, he shows all his glory through the gift of the life of Jesus.  And Jesus concludes by saying: 'Now is the time of the clash between the prince of this world  and the love which I am introducing, a divine love, the love of the Spirit. In this clash, the  prince of the world will be defeated.’  

The prince of the world is the one who has always dominated mankind until the coming  of Christ, who introduced this Spirit which is the divine life into the world. The prince of the  world is the withdrawal into self, thinking of oneself, doing what one likes and selfishness.  This prince of the world created the existing selfish humanity because it has not been  defeated. This prince of the world is still present but his destiny is to be eliminated. From the  cross Jesus will unite to himself and will attract all humankind because he says that 'it is love  that attracts and fascinates and in this confrontation between the prince of the world and my  proposal of a new world, love will win.'  

I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.