LET'S SEE GOD.

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT. YEAR B.
March 29, 2009.
(First reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34) (Psalm 51:3-4, 12-15)
(Second reading: Hebrews 5:7-9) (Gospel: John 12:20-33)


LET'S SEE GOD.

To see God means to know who he is, what he stands for, what he offers us.

Today's gospel tells us that when Jesus heard that there were people who wanted to see him, he revealed himself not only to them, but to the whole world.

Jesus lets us see his own destiny: "The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified" (John 12:23).

He lets us see what he has for us: His glory; and this is his glory that by his cross he will triumph over death.

Anyone who wants to see Jesus is invited to join him in his cross and in his resurrection.
To see Jesus, thus, means to become a "grain of wheat [which] falls to the ground and dies" so that it may "produce much fruit" (John 12:24)

To see Jesus means to be willing to commit oneself to a radical transformation, to a radical departure from the ways of the world, that is, a departure from injustice, from oppression, from dispossession, from lies, from war which are so prevalent in and glorified by the world.

He who is willing to make that commitment will necessarily be faced with "losing his life in this world [but] will preserve it for eternal life" (John 12:25). For the world does kill those who are against injustice, against the truth, against war.

He who promotes or supports worldly life, "will lose it" (John 12:25). For him there will be no eternal life.

By being "lifted up from the earth" (on the cross), Jesus denounces and confronts the world and in the process (and because the cross is the summation of Jesus' life: loved by the Father; attacked by the ruler of this world) he "loses his life in this world" only to "preserve it for eternal life". At that time "the ruler of this world is driven out" (John 12:31). At that time "the name of God is glorified" (John 12:28).

Today let us approach Jesus and ask him that we want to see him.