Reflection on the gospel reading of 5th Sunday in Lent (Year B): Jn 12:20-33 especially Jn 12:20-22
“WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE JESUS”
There is this story about St. Theresa of Avila and Jesus. It says that St. Theresa was always saying to Jesus in prayer “My loving Jesus, I want to see you. Please show me yourself”. She kept on making this request. So, one day, Jesus said to her: “I have heard your request. Today, I will show you something about me. I will visit you between 1pm and 2 pm”. St. Theresa was very happy and went and began to get everything ready. She decorated her entire house with flowers, got her coffee machine ready, prepared Tiramisu and garlic-soup. As she was waiting for Jesus to come, around 1.30p.m, one mad man who was staying in the street, came to St. Theresa’s house and pressed the bell at the entrance door. Theresa rushed out, thinking it was Jesus. When she saw the mad man, she felt very sad and asked the mad man to go and come back later because she was waiting for an important visitor. The mad man thanked her and left. Theresa waited and waited for Jesus, but he did not come.
So, in the evening, she went in for her prayer and said to Jesus: “You disappointed me dear Lord. I waited for you, but you did not come. Did you sleep off?” Jesus laughed and said to her, “I came, and you asked me to go and come back later”. Theresa was confused and said to Jesus, “are you sure it was in my house that you came? Maybe you went to another person’s house because I did not see you.” Then Jesus answered, “I was the mad man you sent away”. Theresa shouted, “the mad man?”, Jesus answered, “Yes. You were waiting to see someone coming with glory and power, that you forgot that I live also in the poor and the sick, in those who are rejected and abandoned
by the society”.
Dearest friends, we all want to see Jesus, but the question is, “which kind of Jesus are we looking for?” and “how do we believe that Jesus comes to us?”
Jesus is not only present to us in our good times. Jesus is not present only in the glorious moments. Jesus can come to us through difficulties, sickness, hardships, and sad moments. The problem is that many a times, we are not so attentive as to see Jesus even in our difficult situations. Stop looking for Jesus only in Galilee, the city of great wonders and happy moments because he also stays in Jerusalem, the city of suffering and pain.
“O PHILIP, LEAD US TO JESUS”
In the words of the Greeks to Philip, one can hear them saying, “Dear Philip, lead us to Jesus”. The fact is that there were many people in Jerusalem who have come for the Passover feast. There were also the Jewish leaders and even Roman officers in the scene. But in the midst of all these people, these Greeks were able to identify who the disciples were and went straight to
Philip, one of Jesus’ disciples to make the request. They believed Philip to be one of Jesus’ disciples, and thus, very capable of creating an opportunity for them and Jesus to meet.
➢ We are all disciples of Jesus. But the question is, are we as close to him as people from afar see us?
➢ The Greeks were able to decipher the disciples from the rest of the people because they saw how they were closely moving with Jesus. When we stand in the midst of a great crowd, can people easily identify us as different from others because we are constantly linked with Jesus both in our words and actions?
➢ The Greeks did not ask Philip first if he was Jesus’ disciple because it was obvious from his closeness with Jesus. Is our closeness to Jesus so obvious that people do not need to ask first “is he/she truly a Christian?” before relating with us?
Furthermore, dearest in Christ, on so many occasions; Jesus brings people that we may help them find his face; that we may help them retrace the essence of their life; that we may help them recover from ill- treatments; that we may help them heal from the evil of the world. Many of them may be vulnerable because of several things they have suffered. Do we lead them to discover the true face of Christ, or do we take advantage of their damaged personality?
Again, sometimes, we may not be very capable to lead people to Christ by ourselves. Sometimes, we may meet situations that we cannot handle alone. There are situations and conditions of life that we may not be well equipped to handle by ourselves. Let us not hesitate to seek for assistance from other well-informed people in that area. When those Greeks came to Philip and shared their need with him, Philip went to Andrew, and two of them carried the need of those Greeks to Jesus. We must be humble to know when a certain case requires two hands. We must be humble to notice that some cases can be handled better by other people and see the need to suggest it to the person(s) involved.
Most importantly, for the directors of souls, we must have colleagues and partners with whom we carry the spiritual needs of the people. Some spiritual needs, some desires to find Jesus; some struggles to see the face of Christ, are better handled when prayed together. Some dangers are easily avoided when spiritual directors share their burden with a trusted colleague, and when spiritual directors have a healthy and holy prayer group where the problem of the people of God are jointly carried to God in prayer just like Philip and Andrew did.
FIND JESUS, AND WHEN YOU FIND HIM, HELP OTHERS TO FIND HIM TOO.
Fr. Nnamah Henry Chukwuezugo
Catholic Diocese of Aguleri