The hour of the Son of Man is also our hour!

The Coming of the Hour of Jesus is our gospel reading for this Sunday. Please open your Bibles and read John 12: 20-33. Some Greeks who had come up to worship at the [Passover] feast 21 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. 23 Jesus answered them, "the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 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.

"25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me. 27 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. 28 Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it and will glorify it again." 29 The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder; but others said, "An angel has spoken to him."

30 Jesus answered and said, "This voice did not come for my sake but for yours. 31 Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32 And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself." 33 He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.

In last Friday's Gospel passage, we learned about the efforts of some Jews to try and arrest or even kill our Lord Jesus, but failed because his hour hasn't come as of yet. Please read John 7: 25-30. So some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said, "Is he not the one they are trying to kill? 26 And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him. Could the authorities have realized the he is the Messiah? 27 But we know where he is from. When the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from."

28 So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said, "You know me and also know where I am from. Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true. 29 I know him because I am from him, and he sent me." 30 So they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come.

With Holy Week just around the corner, we know that the hour of the Son of Man has truly come upon us and in this Gospel reading, Jesus says, "the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 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." This should answer the question posed by many as to why our Lord Jesus Christ had to suffer greatly before the hands of his captors and die for the salvation of our sins.

Our Lord Jesus used the grain as a metaphor, that unless it falls into the ground and dies, it will just remain a grain of wheat. So too must our Lord Jesus Christ be lifted up on the cross, then he would draw many people to him. The Catholic Church is the only institution on this earth that has survived the ravages of time. No nation or kingdom, corporation, entity or family line ever lasted as long as the church because in the past two thousand years, many of us, especially the gentiles have been drawn to the Holy Cross of Jesus. Someday, even the Jews will recognize Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah.

As we've learned before, "what greater sacrifice can one man give, but to give his life so that others may live?" This is the reason why our Father in heaven has given his only Son Jesus to become a mere mortal like all of us, so he could die and be glorified by the Father by the sacrifice his own life for the salvation of many. As our Lord Jesus himself said, "25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life." We are redeemed by the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and we partake of this sacrifice by eating his body and drinking his blood through the Holy Eucharist.

Just think about it. If you're not happy with your life today, perhaps this is God's way of reminding you that our life on this earth is a very temporary one. How many times have you heard the phrase, "How time flies?" That your child is no longer a child, but a grown up. That we ourselves are no longer the young man or woman that we used to be. So when our Lord Jesus said that his hour had come, that also meant that our hour of salvation has also come. This means that we must now repent our sins and change our evil ways.

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