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In this part of John’s Gospel, Jesus, who has been accepted by the Jews as the royal son of David, now has a group of non-Jews, Greeks who are looking for him and to speak with him. This is final indication that the mission of Jesus is coming to a close. The Greeks are the forerunners of all those from outside the Jewish community (including the Gentile world) to whom the love of Jesus is shown totally upon the cross which will draw them to the Father and so to eternal life. Jesus tells us that the “hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” but how can this glory come from being like a ‘buried’ grain of wheat, from being ‘lifted up’ not on a throne but on a cross? Jesus, demonstrated his greatest love by dying for us. The kind of love that Jesus shows us is one that we are incapable of without the help of the Holy Spirit. Just as we have been taught by our parents and teachers how to share, forgive and speak the truth, God has taught us how to love. And this love looks like the cross. Pope Francis says “the cross cannot but express love, service unreserved self-giving: only in this way is it truly the “tree of life”, of overabundant life.”
For us to follow Jesus, means that we follow the cross. Jesus is not glorifying suffering in itself, but in the end, to truly love means to die to ourselves.
We have been given the invitation by God to become like Him. God is love. So, we too are called to become love. Consequently, we have the cross which is the most common sign of our Christianity. We are not alone in our journey. We have been given the Holy Spirit at our Baptism and that is the love of God in our hearts. If we learn to listen to the Spirit we will find ourselves choosing, over and over, the way of suffering love.
When we look back over our day, we can recognise how the Spirit has worked in us and recall the moments where we have been in touch with the child inside, where we can recognise the intensely painful fight against something that we probably should have done. But, with the help of the Spirit we can be the adult to ourselves, and listen to our own thoughts and finally assess which choice was the way to love and life and with God’s help we can resolve to make the right choice next time.
