THE TEXT BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPTION OF THE VIDEO COMMENTARY BY FR. FERNANDO ARMELLINI

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A good Sunday to all. 

The background picture helps us understand the context of today’s gospel passage. We see a large crowd of pilgrims atop the Mount of Olives, contemplating the magnificent temple plaza, with the sanctuary at its center. The smoke from the burnt offerings rises to heaven, and they are moved as they hear echoes of songs and music from the Levites, along with the sounds of trumpets, harps, and flutes. 

It is about these pilgrims that we want to reflect. These are the preparatory days leading up to the feast of Passover, and it will be the last Passover Jesus experiences, as he will be executed on the eve of the feast. Who are these pilgrims? They come from all around the world. Most of them are observant Jews, but among them are also pagans; they are sympathizers of the Jewish religion. The New Testament calls them proselytes; they also attend the synagogue, but only to listen to the wisdom in the Scriptures. They have not yet decided to take the final step that would make them full Jews, which means becoming circumcised. 

Today’s Gospel passage describes a group of proselytes who came to Jerusalem for Passover. The evangelist calls them ‘Greeks’ because they are foreigners who speak only Greek, the common language of the time, rather than Hebrew or Aramaic. Now, let’s learn who they are and why they came to Jerusalem. 

Now, some Greeks were among those who had come up to worship at the feast. They 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.

The proselytes mentioned in today’s Gospel have come to Jerusalem for worship, says the evangelist, and they tried to approach the sanctuary, where the Lord was worshipped. 

On the temple’s esplanade, anyone could enter, even pagans, but at a certain point they encountered a guardrail one and a half meters high, with 13 Greek inscriptions warning of the death penalty for those who dared to cross it if they were not Jews. That’s why they could not approach the sanctuary. One of these thirteen inscriptions is in the museum of the Ancient East in Istanbul, and it is likely that the group of pilgrims we are speaking of was halted right in front of this inscription. 

They were devout people, but they could not enter the sanctuary. If we had been on the esplanade, we could have seen the disappointment on their faces at not being able to see the face of the Lord in that sanctuary. Certainly, they knew and remembered Psalm 27 because they were people who frequented the synagogue, and the psalmist said: “I ask but one thing of the Lord, that I may spend all my days in his house, to contemplate the beauty of the Lord, to admire his temple.’ They could not approach this sanctuary. 

We don’t know through whom, but a group of Greeks heard about Jesus and felt compelled to go to the sanctuary, which led them to Him; in fact, we see them walking away from that handrail and searching for Jesus. They don’t realize it, but it is the Spirit who guides them to the new and true sanctuary, where they can truly meet the Lord. Whoever observes the magnificent construction of the sanctuary sees a physical building made of marble, covered in gold, but he who encounters the new sanctuary, which is Jesus, where God is truly present, has the blessing of truly beholding the face of God. 

And now, through the spiritual journey of these Greeks, the evangelist shares our story: how each of us comes to see the face of the Lord, to behold God’s face. We can only do this if we are led into this new sanctuary, Jesus. What do these Greeks do? They approach Philip, who is from Bethsaida in Galilee. 

Here is the first message: To reach the new sanctuary, you must be accompanied by someone who has actually met and seen the Lord. They turn to Philip. Why? Philip, a Greek name, is from Bethsaida in Galilee, a frontier place with a more open mentality. They have no qualms about talking to a pagan; Philip certainly speaks some Greek, and they pray to him, saying, “Lord, we want to see Jesus.” 

This prayer is wonderful, and everyone should pray it. When we meet someone who has truly seen who Jesus is, has contemplated Him, and has been captivated by His person, we should also ask Him to let us see Jesus so that we can understand who He is. They want to see Jesus, but there’s a subtlety to note here regarding the Greek verb used; there are two verbs for seeing. A simpler verb, ‘blepei,’ means to see what one can observe from the outside. But there’s another verb, ‘orao,’ which means to see deeply, to grasp who you really are. There is an external, superficial seeing, and, besides that, a seeing that includes grasping the identity of what we observe. 

We’ve all, for example, been at a station with a friend who, watching someone pass by with a suitcase, says: “Do you know who that person is over there?” We might answer: “One of the many who have a suitcase…” “NO, he is the Nobel Prize winner.” One has seen – ‘blepein’; the other has seen ‘orao’. He has seen what that person’s identity is. There is also a simple outward appearance of Jesus, a carpenter, son of Joseph, who is able to do miracles, but we are still at the stage of the outward appearance; we have not yet grasped his identity. And let’s be careful because we may also be people who have only seen the outward appearance of the person of Jesus — sympathetic and attractive — but perhaps we have not grasped his true identity. 

Let’s look at some examples from the gospels to understand this difference. We find a person who wanted to see Jesus: Herod Antipas. He had heard about him; he was the star of the moment, and he had heard that he was doing wonders. He had the opportunity to meet him when Pilate sent him during Passover. When he saw Jesus, he was very happy and expected to see a miracle. Jesus did not bother to answer him, and Herod was utterly disappointed. The evangelist Luke clearly describes his judgment with the very strong Greek verb ‘ἐξουθενήο’ = ‘exuzeneo’ (Lk 23:11), meaning he regarded him as a nobody. Herod was disappointed because he only looked at Jesus’ outward appearance. To him, Jesus was just a curiosity; he was not interested in discovering his true identity. He saw only the surface, and it was a letdown. 

Let’s be careful, because you might focus on the crucifix and get stuck on the external aspect: how much Jesus suffered. Some preachers in the past, during long Good Friday sermons, would dwell on the details describing Jesus’ pain. When they succeeded in making their listeners weep, they thought they had delivered a great sermon. However, they had not understood Jesus’s true identity; they did not realize that his passion was a love story. You truly see Jesus when, on that crucifix, you recognize the glory of the Father who was able to show, through Jesus, how much he loves us. If you don’t understand this love, you haven’t truly grasped his identity. We tend to focus on the external aspects. 

We remember Zacchaeus quite differently. He wanted to see Jesus, not like Herod Antipas, but to understand who Jesus truly is. ‘Perhaps someone who will resolve my inner restlessness…’ He seeks him out because he believes Jesus can give meaning to his life. Or it could be the disciples of John the Baptist asking Jesus, “Where do you live?” And Jesus responds, “Come and see.” That was Jesus’ invitation — not to see where his house was, since he had no house — but to discover his true identity. 

The proselytes in our passage are not seeking Jesus because he is famous or to ask for his autograph. They are seekers of truth, love, and wisdom; they are looking for someone to help them and give meaning to their lives. And this prayer they offer to Philip, “we want to see Jesus,” should be ours. We are listening to the Gospel of John; we don’t address Philip, but there must be someone who allows us to see Jesus. In our case, it is not Philip, but John. 

The gospel of John is presented as the work of a witness who affirms and reports what he has seen. In the prologue, it says: “The Word became flesh, the Word through whom God was revealed, became one of us, and we have seen his glory.” John writes: I write to you about what I have seen. Then John continues his account in his first letter with that wonderful beginning, in which he expresses the emotion of having known the Word of God made flesh: “That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we have looked upon and our hands have touched, is that which we proclaim to you, the Word of life.” 

Philip does not immediately bring these people to Jesus. Instead, he goes to tell Andrew, and then they go together to tell Jesus. Why doesn’t Philip lead these Greeks directly to Jesus? Philip was a very determined person; let’s remember that after meeting Jesus, he met Nathanael, who told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law and the prophets: Jesus, the son of Joseph, of Nazareth.” Philip had only seen Jesus’s outward appearance and had no trouble talking about him, but when someone truly knows who Jesus is, they don’t immediately start talking about him. They hesitate a little and need support from someone else, so Philip goes to Andrew. Andrew is another of the 12 who have Greek names, and together they go to Jesus. 

You can see how difficult it becomes to truly understand Jesus when someone asks us to see Him. If we consider the facts, it’s straightforward, but when we examine His true identity, we encounter problems—perhaps because we haven’t genuinely seen Him. As a result, we know very little about Him. If we had truly seen Him, if we had fallen in love with Him, we would speak about Him with conviction and enthusiasm right away. We would want those who listen to us to share in the joy of discovering a treasure—the love of our life. 

Let’s listen to Jesus’ response to Philip and Andrew. 

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 only 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, my servant will be also. The Father will honor whoever serves me.

We were definitely a little surprised by the answer Jesus gave to Philip and Andrew. The two disciples had gone to tell him that ‘there is a group of Greeks who want to see you.’ Instead of going to meet the Greeks, Jesus shows the two disciples his face, his true identity. The disciples should see and know him well before they set out to show the face of Jesus to the Greeks. Those two have seen many things, many aspects of Jesus’ person, but they have not yet accepted his true identity. 

We are those two disciples now. It is to us that Jesus wants to reveal himself. If one day, as it happened to Philip and Andrew, someone says to us, ‘Show us Jesus,’ show us his true face, we need to have seen his face first so we can show it to anyone who wants to see it. So now, let us listen to what Jesus tells us about himself: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” What is this hour? The evangelist John spoke of it from the beginning. At Cana, Jesus says, ‘My hour is not come.’ Then, at the Feast of Tabernacles, in chapter 7 of the Gospel, Jesus is in Jerusalem, and the evangelist says that they were trying to seize Jesus—they wanted to take him out of the way—but no one laid hands on him because ‘his hour had not come.’ 

What is this hour, this moment that is remembered and so important? In chapter 8, right after a heated discussion in the temple with the scribes and Pharisees, the evangelist notes that no one arrested him because ‘his hour had not yet come.’ Now Jesus says: “My hour is come” – the hour when the Son of Man is glorified. What is this glory he is now called to display? The story follows immediately after Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, a glorious moment when all the people shouted: ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel.’ Such a glorious moment disturbed the scribes and Pharisees, who said, ‘all the world follows him’ … this is what they wished for themselves. This is the glory of this world, when everyone applauds you. It was not that time; it was not that hour when the Son of Man is glorified. 

When is the glory of God? The glory of God is revealed when He shows who He truly is — love. When He demonstrates how much He loves, that is the glorious moment; God’s glory is in His love for all of us. The Father has fully manifested this glory in Jesus; He is the revelation of God’s true nature and His glorious face, because His entire life was a display of love. He served those in need and healed the sick. Jesus revealed to despised and outcast sinners that God loves them, welcomes them, and dines with them. Jesus seeks out the lepers, the most marginalized in Israeli society, who live far away, and He shows them kindness. 

Here is the love of God. Every action of Jesus demonstrated the glory of God, which is love. When they wanted to stone the adulteress, Jesus revealed the glory of God by welcoming her rather than condemning her. This expression of God’s loving side dispels the false image of God as one who needs to be served by humans. God did not create humans to serve Him; quite the opposite: God is love because He serves people. Therefore, Jesus’s entire life was a display of God’s glory and of what it means to serve. For us, the one who allows himself to be served is glorious. For God, it is the other way around. 

God reveals His glory when He serves us. Now, the time has come to fully and unambiguously reveal the true identity of Jesus, the ultimate revealer of God’s glory. What has happened so far is merely an introduction, a preparation for this complete revelation that will occur in this hour. 

And he now offers a comparison: “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies (and it is an apparent death), it produces much fruit.” This image illustrates what happens to the seed when it’s placed in the ground; it disappears, it seems to die, but in reality, it bursts with fullness of life. That is what is happening now, in this hour, with Jesus’ life. ‘If I withhold it, it dies, but if I give it now out of love, in this hour it will be an explosion of life.’ 

And he continues: “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.” What does it mean? What does it mean to hate life? Life is like that; it is not a good I can cling to. At any moment, life slips away like water from my hands. Every passing moment is life lost. People want to hold on to life… how do they do it? Some say, ‘I cling to it because I enjoy it.’ Jesus says, ‘That way you lose it.’ If, instead, you want to keep it, donate it, transform it into love. No one can touch love because love is divine life; it is the life of the Eternal, and no one can erase it. 

That is what Jesus says: ‘he who loves life’—he means: ‘he who keeps it selfishly for himself loses it’; but he who ‘hates his life’—what does it mean to hate life in order to keep it? It means to give it away. Let’s think about this—let’s consider some examples to help us understand. First, a very simple one: we all know what happens when someone falls in love with another person. They start saying ‘no’ to themselves to be appreciated by others. They tune in to the other person. They do what the other person likes. To find life and joy for the other person, you have to be able to say ‘no’ to yourself. When two people meet and don’t know how to say ‘no’ to each other, the relationship often ends quickly. When two people get married, they need to start saying ‘no’ to each other, to themselves, and to their own selfishness to make the other person happy. And by the time children are born, how many ‘nos’ do the parents have to say—not because it’s easy to say ‘no,’ but because it’s a form of sacrifice, of renunciation. A father has a weekly meeting with his friends or a soccer game, but now his son needs to do his homework, so the game is a ‘no.’ Multiply these circumstances—you know very well when this ‘no’ enters your life. 

But they are ‘no’ to love, to life. If one does not say ‘no,’ one does not know how to renounce one’s selfishness and personal choices; one does not build love and loses one’s life. On the other hand, if one transforms it into love, one preserves it. What did Jesus do? He gave his life for love. If he had kept it for himself, it would have been death. He gave it freely. Let us consider another example: that of Maximilian Kolbe. He gave his life for another’s, for the life of a father; he did not keep it for himself but transformed it into love. He was also a manifestation of the glory of God, who is love. 

And then he continues: “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.” He is showing us who Jesus is: he says he does not want servants; he does not want to be served by anyone; he is a servant. 

What does it mean when it says, ‘whosoever serves me’? In the Bible, being a servant is considered the highest honor because it’s a title reserved for great people—like Moses, St. Paul, and even Mary, who is called ‘the servant of the Lord.’ These are individuals who dedicate their entire lives to God’s plan, a plan rooted in love. The phrase ‘if one wants to serve me’ means that if you want to be part of this mission—this act of surrender—you must follow where I lead and give your life. A disciple should be willing to give his life, even for those who have hurt him, demonstrating the highest form of love. 

And where I am, there shall my servant be. Where is Jesus? Let’s read Matthew chapter 25, and we’ll quickly understand where he is—waiting for us to serve the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, those in need of shelter, and the imprisoned. ‘It was I,’ says Jesus, who was waiting for you to come and serve me as one in need of love. And you came to give your life for these people who needed you. 

“The Father will honor whoever serves me.” What does it mean to honor? In Hebrew, honor is ‘kavod.’ ‘Keved’ (כָּבוֹד) means something heavy, something that weighs, not something easily carried away by the wind. We clearly understand the difference between wheat and chaff. When wheat is sifted, the grain remains while the chaff is carried away by the wind. When God’s judgment comes, people’s honor, applause, and displays of glory are like chaff, swept away by the wind. So what remains? What is the weight, the true glory that God honors? It is love; the one who has given life then receives this approval from the heavenly Father. 

Now we understand the meaning of the Eucharist. Here, I want to make a connection. At the end of his life, when he shared his entire story, what did he choose? ‘I have become bread.’ He took bread and said, ‘This is me.’ This is the crushed grain of wheat that was not afraid to go into the ground, knowing that this is an apparent death, death to selfishness, and it is life. It is the invitation in the Eucharist, ‘take and eat,’ that is, absorb this story of mine. This is the Eucharist, and only this. 

Therefore, to donate life. It scares us because, instinctively, we want to keep it for ourselves. The death that frightens us frightened Jesus. What did the gift of his life cost him? Did it cost him nothing… or did it also cost him to make the choice to give up all of himself? Let us listen: 

’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, ‘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.

Now Jesus says, “I am troubled now.” Jesus is frightened. The Greek verb used by the evangelist is ‘tarasein’ (τετάρακται), which conveys the agitation of the sea’s waves. This reflects the inner turmoil Jesus experiences. He is afraid, as everyone else is of death; he wants to avoid it. A premature death, in the prime of life, violent, senseless, abandoned by all, even by his friends—delivered by one of his disciples—and therefore a victim of hatred. 

Here is the inner conflict of Jesus, who wonders: What can I say at this moment… ask the Father to save me from this hour? But I have come for this very hour, for it is in this moment that the ultimate revelation of God’s love will occur, and I must go through it. Jesus could have run away; he had done so before when his hour had not yet come, but now is the time to reveal this greatest love. And he prays, “Father, give glory to your Name.” ‘Through me, show forth your glory.’ Jesus’ acceptance of the Father’s plan surpasses the greatest crimes committed by people. 

“Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it and will glorify it again.’” Again, this voice from heaven, in rabbinic language, indicates how God judges that moment. God saw that Jesus, the Son, had glorified him throughout his life, showing how much he loves, and now he glorifies him again, that is, he shows all his glory through the gift of Jesus’s life. And Jesus concludes by saying: ‘Now is the time of the clash between the prince of this world and the love which I am introducing, a divine love, the love of the Spirit. In this clash, the prince of the world will be defeated.’ 

The prince of the world has always controlled humanity until Christ came, bringing the divine life, or Spirit, into the world. The prince of the world is essentially self-centered, thinking only of oneself, doing what one wants, and being selfish. This prince created the selfish humanity that exists today because it has not been defeated. Although still present, he is destined to be destroyed. From the cross, Jesus will unite himself with all people and draw them in because he says, ‘it is love that attracts and fascinates, and in the confrontation between the prince of the world and my offer of a new world, love will prevail.’ 

I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.