Fr. Raymond Homily St. John 12;20-33

Sunday 22nd (2015) Mass

Homily of Fr. Raymond

Some Greeks Wish to See Jesus

²⁰ Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. ²¹ They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” ²² Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. ²³ Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴ Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. ²⁵ Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶ Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

Jesus Speaks about His Death

²⁷ “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. ²⁸ Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” ²⁹ The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” ³⁰ Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. ³¹ Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. ³² And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” ³³ He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

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St. John tells us in today's Gospel that some Greeks approached Philip to ask him to introduce them to Jesus. Why was it Philip they approached? Somehow, perhaps because of his accent, they knew he was from the area called Galilee, Galilee of the Gentiles in fact it was called. It seems there were so many gentiles living where he did that they thought they would have a more sympathetic hearing from him than from any of the other apostles. The others were so obviously 'dyed in the wool' Jews, bitterly antagonistic to all that the gentiles stood for. So, it's not surprising that it was Philip they asked to introduce them to Jesus. However, It's obvious that this request was a bit too much for Philip to handle on his own. So he went to ask Andrew for moral support. Andrew was a bit higher up in the pecking order of the Apostles; after all he was Peter's Brother.     

The reason for this round about approach to Jesus was that up till then Jesus himself had steered very much clear of the gentiles. In fact, when he first sent his apostles out to prepare the way for him to come in person, he explicitly told them: "Don't go to gentile towns or to gentile villages. He was very firm about this policy himself. He even went to the extent of appearing to be cruel about it! When a poor gentile Mother pleaded with him to deliver her daughter from a devil, he refused at first, because, as he said "1 was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel". You need only read the Gospels to realise how faithfully he kept to this purpose. Jesus could so easily have imitated his great missionary disciple Paul. He could so easily, like Paul, have travelled far and wide throughout the Roman Empire to spread the Good News. But no, Jesus kept jealously to the mission his Father gave him: to "go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel". 

It's no wonder then that St Johnmakes a great deal of this scene. This had been, for himself and for the other apostles, a moment of the greatest significance in the mission of the Master. This was a defining moment in the mission of the Messiah, the Messiah whom they had jealous!y regarded as the Saviour, not of the world, but of the house of Israel only. And it's no wonder that Jesus himself gets caught up in the greatness of the moment - "Now, now the hour has come", he says "Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Now the hour has come for the accomplishment of the redemption of all peoples, Jews and Gentiles alike to the ends of the earth. Now My Hour has come. Now the full scope of my mission begins"