Sunday Meditation: The Time of Judgement

Last week we heard Jesus telling us that He must be lifted up to bring eternal life.  He said this in the third chapter of John in a conversation to Nicodemus, the elder at the Temple.  It was a mysterious comment that is picked up again and elaborated on nine chapters later, this time to a crowd in Jerusalem who had come for Passover.  But as a lead in to that, Jesus first speaks of life and death as a grain of wheat.

 

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.

~Jn 12:20-33

This is a complicated passage.  There is much going on.  First the Greeks coming to Philip, and him and Andrew taking them to Jesus; then the grain of wheat metaphor; then the embracing of death; then the glorification and the voice of the Father; then announcing the time of judgement; and finally the lifting up description.  This will require more than one exegesis to grasp it all.

First let’s listen to Brant Pitre to get the gist of the Gospel reading.

 

Second, Bishop Robert Barron provides the more theological implications of the passage.

 

Finally Jeff Cavens provides a connection to our personal lives.

 

Gosh, I think I have in the past missed the voice of God the Father, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.”  There is so much in this passage that it must have never sunk in that the Father actually speaks.  The voice of God enters here to verify His approval of the glorification. 

Another striking element to the passage is that Jesus seems to ignore the Greeks.  They come to greet Him and what does He say?  Tangentially He announces the hour has come for Him to be glorified.  Does the crowd now understand the lifting up image?  I don’t think so.  I think one can only understand that after one sees His crucifixion.

So this week I gave you a triple play, but if you want a grand slam search out Fr. Geoffrey Plant’s homily on this passage.  That’s worth watching as well.

 

Meditation: “Now is the time of judgment on this world.”

 

Sunday Meditation: The Son of Man Lifted Up

This week’s Gospel takes a turn from where to meet God (the desert, the mountain, the temple) to preparing us for the crucifixion and Holy Week events.  Today we have the famous conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, the elder Pharisee at the Temple.  The Gospel passage comes in mid conversation, but it would behoove you to read the previous thirteen lines of John, Chapter 3.  Here is only the Gospel reading.

 

Jesus said to Nicodemus:

“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,

so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”

 

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him might not perish

but might have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,

but that the world might be saved through him.

Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,

but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,

because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

And this is the verdict,

that the light came into the world,

but people preferred darkness to light,

because their works were evil.

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light

and does not come toward the light,

so that his works might not be exposed.

But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,

so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

~Jn 3:14-21

This week, Bishop Barron has the best homily. 

 

In listening to Bishop Barron, it dawned on me why we Catholics put a crucifix up in the sanctuary of every church, and why we put crucifixes in our homes.  I remember a Protestant woman asking this once.  She said Protestants emphasize the Resurrection, and so the cross should not have the corpus on it.  I responded that the crucifixion shows our redemption and the love Christ showed for us, and that is true.  In the future I think I should add to this analogy that Christ makes Himself, that is, just as the bronze serpent was raised in desert that saved the Jews, Christ raised on the cross saves us!

Meditation: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”