Today’s Gospel sets the stage for the forthcoming drama of Holy Week. Jesus is speaking to his disciples both that his ministry of preaching is over and also that a final cosmic battle with Satan is about to begin. This battle will result in his death, but that death will be unimaginably beneficial in defeating evil and granting his followers access to eternal life.

What is the reason behind this dramatic declaration is something quite ordinary, the significance of which only Jesus comprehends. Some Greeks arrive and desire to see Jesus. He appears to not be interested in them. These are not Greek-speaking Jews but gentile Greeks.  A meeting with them would certainly be an opportunity for Jesus to expand his ministry. But he does not have any interest in talking to them. Philip and Andrew must have been bewildered by His response.

The arrival of these Greeks is the sign that Jesus has been waiting for – His message is beginning to spread to gentile territories. This means that His earthly ministry must now cease – just as it is beginning to show promising signs of growth. Nevertheless, there are potential converts – so why does Jesus neglect them?

It is difficult for us today to comprehend that Jesus’ immediate ministry was primarily directed to his own people, the Jews. There is a very good reason for this.  They are His people and God’s chosen people.  It is from them that He has been born and this is part of a divine plan which has been unfolding over the centuries, a plan in which the descendants of Israel are called to a two-fold witness – to witness in their faith to the one true God and in their manner of living, to be examples of fidelity to God’s commandments.  Like all human beings, the chosen people did not always maintain their faith in being a holy people. However, their failures were only meant to highlight God’s love for them and His infinite mercy. The prophet Jeremiah reminds us of this mercy, and he foretells a new era when God will recreate His chosen people by planting His law in their hearts.

Jesus is in this new era. He is a son of David and the Son of God. In Him, a human will has fully embraced God’s law that it is a perfect expression of the Father’s own will. His first priority, then, is to create his own people by living among them and acting as a source of the Father’s love for them. He will sacrifice all to show them how to respond to the God who is our Father. If Jesus recognizes the privileged place of his own people in the divine plan, he also recognizes that there is a place in that divine plan for the rest of humanity. As He tells us in this Gospel passage, by being ‘lifted up from the earth’, in other words by dying on the cross, he will draw everyone, Jew and gentile, to himself.  After his resurrection, He will send his disciples to accomplish the second stage of His mission, which will be to the whole of the gentile nation.

There is a difficult pill to swallow in this Gospel because being drawn to Christ will require ‘hating our life in this world’. To serve Jesus means to follow Him; and to follow Him means to follow Him to the cross, because that is where He is now headed. The letter to the Hebrews provides us with a further perspective on the human condition: that we all learn to obey God through suffering. Jesus’ passion and death demonstrates the need for’ suffering as a way to obedience’.

Most of us are cautious to avoid anything that might involve difficulty or suffering. We are tempted to surround ourselves with comforts, says Blessed John Henry Newman, but these comforts detract from our hearts and deprive us of God. It’s just part of wanting to have things our own way and to be the center of the world.

Yet, when we think about it, suffering is an ever present and important part of growing as a human being.  The transformation from a child to a mature adult is not easy. So, it should not surprise us that suffering, and sacrifice are also the way to grow in holiness.  The main objective is not to fear sacrifice and to be willing to begin here and now to embrace the will of God in every moment of our lives.

You may say, ‘Easier said than done’ and you would be right. However, it is not all about us. It is the grace of Christ’s work within us that will refashion our will and transform our rebellious human spirit into loving and regular obedience. We only have to ask for that grace.