REFLECTION

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.

John 12: 20 - 33

We know that in order to experience his Resurrection at Easter, Jesus had to suffer and die first. It is very probable that Jesus was feeling anxious about his coming death. But he knows that his purpose in coming to the world was to fulfil his Father’s will. He knows that, like the grain of wheat that has to die in order to grow into z fruit-producing plant, he has to give his life in order for us to have eternal life.