My Dear People,

As we get closer to Good Friday, what   Jesus calls the “hour,”the readings are more  focused on that “hour.”

The Gospel begins with the Greek people approaching Philip, who has a Greek name and who must understand Greek in order to act as an interpreter. That being the case, then it is a very important moment because it means that the people of a non-Jewish culture came in search of Jesus, making them the first-fruits of the spread of the Christian Faith in the Hellenistic Movement. This would make it easier to understand our Lord’s exclamation in verse 23 about His own glorification, which has to do not only with His being raised up to the right hand of the Father but also with His attracting all men to Himself (cf. Jn 12:32).

Jesus also refers to “the hour” on other occasions. But, here, it means the moment of  redemption through his death and glorification. 

There is an apparent paradox here between Christ’s humiliation and His glorification. Thus, “it was appropriate that the loftiness of His glorification should be preceded by the lowliness of His passion.” (St. Augustine, In Joann. Evang., 51, 8). We find the same idea in St. Paul, when he says that Christ humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Thus, God the Father exalted Him above all    created things (cf. Phil 2:8-9). 

This is a lesson and an encouragement to the Christian, who should acknowledge every type of suffering and contradiction as a sharing in Christ’s cross, which redeems us and exalts us. To be supernaturally effective, a person has to die to himself, forgetting his comfort and shedding his selfishness. “If the grain of wheat does not die, it remains unfruitful. 

Our Lord has spoken about His sacrifice being a condition of His entering His glory. And what holds good for the Master applies also to His Disciples (Cf. Mt 10:24; Lk. 6:40). Jesus wants each of us to be of service to Him. It is a mystery of God’s plan that He—who is all, who has all, and who needs nothing and nobody—should choose to need our help to ensure that His teaching and the salvation wrought by Him reaches all  people. 

“To follow Christ”!  That is the secret. We must accompany Him so closely that we come to live with Him, just as the first Twelve did; so closely that we become identified with Him. 

 As St. Jose Maria Escriva wrote in Friends of God, “I have distinguished that there are four stages in our effort to identify ourselves with Christ—seeking Him, finding Him, getting to know Him, and loving Him. 

It may seem to you that you are only at the first stage. Seek Him then, hungrily: seek Him with all your strength. If you act with determination, I am ready to guarantee that you have already found Him and have begun to get to know Him and to love Him, and to have that conversation in heaven.” [Passages from Navarre Bible]

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Vincent Clemente