Gospel John 12:20-33
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.
Reflection by Brother Steven Barbaro, FSC – Novice
“I want to see the Principal!”
Br. Steven, most recently a Religion Teacher at Central Catholic, Pittsburgh, is now in a year of discernment in the Brothers’ Novitiate in Chicago.
“Please be seated,” says the lobby receptionist, who then calls the secretary, who then calls the Assistant Principal to see what’s up, and then…maybe…the Principal comes out to see the visitor. The visiting Greeks wishing to see Jesus got a similar response. And His response to them was a bit unexpected, saying the seed must first be planted, rot, then grow. What had this response to do with their visit? Why do we novices in Chicago have a covered plastic tub on the kitchen counter to receive food scraps? Well, the scraps are taken eventually to the outdoor compost, placed in the top level and there over the next weeks they will decompose, be digested by worms and bacteria, and when their remains reach the bottom of the compost vessel they will be perfect fertilizer for next spring’s garden.
As religious educators, we must go through a form of decomposing for our teaching to be effective. We must forget ourselves and our egos, work hard day after day to break down barriers. We must exhort our students to do the hard work of study, encourage them with firmness, affection and kindness and let them know they are capable of learning. And this teaching is hard work and involves the painful death, the decomposing, of our selfishness and egotism and allow the life of fertilizing Christ in the hearts and minds of our disciples. Once in a “blue moon” there will be a dramatic learning moment, a rumbling, a thunder, so to speak, when our teaching ferments, fertilizes and learning takes place. Such a moment is rare in the teacher’s life, but if we stick with it year after year we will experience that rumble, that voice of God, now and then, and it will keep us filled with zeal to continue the human and Christian education of youth. And God will have made the rumble! The compost from the decayed kitchen scraps will help yield a fruitful harvest. And waiting to see the Principal, to see Christ, will have been well worth the wait!