Daily Gospel Reflection
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March 17, 2024
Some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast
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.
Jesus answered them,
“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.
“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.
If the Greeks who had asked to see Jesus felt they had bitten off more than they could chew after everything that happened, I don’t blame them. Perhaps they had heard of Jesus’ miracles or teachings and were curious, wanting to lay eyes on the man they had heard so much about.
Imagine their surprise when he issued such sobering and challenging dictums as “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.” No wonder some of them tried to shake off the voice from heaven as thunder: it affirmed the authority of Jesus’ words.
Even those willing to say the voice was from an angel still fell short of acknowledging the truth. Maybe it was too inconvenient to believe that God’s voice had spoken from heaven because that would force them to grapple more seriously with the difficult things Jesus had said.
I know there are times when I hear the Word of God or receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and fail to respond appropriately. It’s easy to brush aside God giving himself to me much as the crowd brushed aside the voice as thunder—nothing out of the ordinary, nothing to cause me to change how I live my life.
At other times, I recognize that the Lord is present to me but fail to actually respond to his presence. I acknowledge Jesus after Communion, then let my mind drift to my to-do list for that day. I read the Bible but don’t take time to meditate on it. This gospel challenges us not to take these encounters with the Lord for granted, but to ask him to help us draw closer to him and to allow him to change our lives.
Prayer
O God, strengthen our faith in your presence to us, especially through the Word of Scripture and the sacraments of your Church. May our belief in you reveal itself in our goodness to others, especially in ways of sacrifice and service. We ask all this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen!
