5th Sunday of Lent (Fr. Francis)

“How I would love to know you!”

Once there was a salt doll who lived so far inland that she had never seen the sea. Consumed with a desire to see the sea she set out one day and walked hundreds of miles towards the ocean. At last she arrived and she stood by the seashore enraptured by the wonder of what she saw she cried out, “O Sea, how I would love to know you!” To her surprise and delight the sea responded to her, “To know me you must touch me.” So the little salt doll walked towards the sea and as she advanced into the oncoming tide she saw to her horror that her toes began to disappear. Then as her feet began to disappear she cried out, “O Sea, what are you doing to me?” The sea replied, “If you desire to know me fully you must be prepared to give something of yourself.” As the doll advanced further into the water her limbs and then her body began to disappear and as she became totally dissolved she cried out, “Now at last, I know the sea!”

The visit by the Greeks, who ask Philip, “We would like to see Jesus,” is the occasion for Jesus’ discourse about his death. It is also an opportunity for Jesus’ followers to be taught about being willing to be like Jesus – a grain of wheat dying, so as to bear “much fruit.” At first the Greek’s request and Jesus’ response seem disconnected; but they are not. In response to the request of the Greeks, Jesus moves our attention to his suffering, death and resurrection, which we will soon be celebrating during our Triduum. He will face his death with a determination to see it through and not flee. Contrary to our experience of death as a final destruction, Jesus sees it as a moment of God’s glorification. Those who see his death and continue to look with eyes of faith upon him, will also see God’s hand rescuing Jesus from death.

Remember that the desire to see Jesus is expressed by Greeks. Jesus’ response about self-sacrifice and dying to oneself repeats what he frequently says in the Synoptic gospels. Here he has focused his words to the inquiry by the Greeks, for in Greek philosophy there is little or no reference to dying to self, or the sacrifice of one’s own life for another. So, Jesus’ example of the grain of wheat bearing “much fruit” through dying, is a fitting image at this moment. His followers will leave behind the worldly and “logical” thinkers of the world and trust in his words – as contradictory as they may seem to the disciples.

These Greeks were sincere searchers. While they were not fully part of the Jewish community, they were in Jerusalem to worship with the Jews at Passover. In John’s packed vocabulary, “to see” implies more than physical sight; it suggests a sight that comes from believing. The presence of Andrew with Philip hearkens to the beginning of the gospel when Andrew and another disciple of John the Baptist, went to Jesus. He invited them to “come and see.” We have been with these disciples on their journey with Jesus, listening with them to Jesus’ words and observing his great works. We, like those disciples, have come to “see” who Jesus is (Cf. 1: 35ff).

The Gentiles ask to “see” Jesus. Do they represent the “others,” the people of the world who, along with Andrew and Philip, Mary and Martha, will also come to believe in Jesus? He must make it clear to them and us: to really get the full picture of faith, the whole experience of Jesus must be “seen.” Soon we, with them, will see Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection.

We might pay honor today to people in the Rite of Christian Initiation. Those who will be baptized at the Easter Vigil are like the searching Gentiles saying, “We would like to see Jesus.” Their sponsors and other mentors in the RCIA are the ones who, by the witness of their lives and their instruction, help the searchers “see” Jesus. And the rest of us? Don’t we “see” Jesus because of those who have shown him to us by their own lives? Haven’t others modeled the self-sacrifice Jesus speaks of in today’s gospel? Hasn’t their self-giving shown us Jesus? Do we “see” him in these scriptural stories we hear each week at these assemblies? Are we helped to see him through the homily? Do we look below the appearance of bread and wine and see Jesus’ life given for us and nourishing us?

So, there we are, with the Greeks, and we get up enough courage, the faith, to approach one of Jesus’ intimates: Philip. And we ask him, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” We would like to see Jesus. That’s us, right? We want to see him. We long for him. Ok, one question: Why? Think about it: why do you want to see him? Feel the weight of the question. Let it sink deep—passed all that abstract, surface religiosity. Not the typical evangelistic question: “Do you love Jesus?” or “Do you know Jesus?” But a question that unsettles us where we’re at: Why do you want to see him? Why?

We have the expression, “seeing is believing.” But, in the light of today’s gospel, we can say today, “Believing is seeing.” We want to see him that we may believe in him and have happiness!

Amen

Fr. A. Francis HGN