We are getting close to the end of Lent; we go to Jerusalem, so to speak, and witness the passion, death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ; we are not quite there yet, but we have some more time to search for Jesus and take a few deeper looks at who he is, so as to prepare ourselves for the paschal mystery that give sense to our faith and our religion.
In the Gospel of this fifth Sunday of Lent, Saint John tells the story of Jesus’ encounter with some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast. They approach Philip and ask him: “Sir, we would like to see Jesus” (Jn 12: 20-33).
Brothers and sisters, every genuine encounter with Jesus always starts with the search, with a simple request like this. Did Jesus himself not say: “Seek and you will find?” This request reminds me of an experience for the quest of Jesus that I went through some 10 years ago.
That day, we had just participated in the Diocesan Youth Day that gathered Catholic youths from the African Great Lakes region. The theme for this gathering was actually drawn from the Greek pilgrims’ humble request: “We want to see Jesus.”
However, for me and another young man (at the time a student like me, but now a Xaverian missionary in Sierra Leone), the encounter did not take place in Jerusalem, not even at the Mount Carmel parish of Goma where hundreds of young people were gathered in prayer and worship; it was rather on the shores of the beautiful Lake Kivu.
Indeed, my friend and I together with Fr. Dovigo, SX and another missionary went to fetch two Xaverian missionaries who were arriving from Bukavu by boat. There were a lot of people and vehicles at the port. Suddenly, someone in the crowd approached us and asked if we could help carry a lifeless body of a young man who drowned in the lake a few days before and who was now being fished out of the lake.
The stink of the corpse was simply awful and flies were beginning to gather. Since nobody was willing to help that family, not primarily because of the terrible smell but especially because they come to the port to fetch their relatives or friends, not to carry bodies. So, Fr. Dovigo asked the other missionary who was driving a pick-up to take the corpse while he, the other young man and I would take, in our Nissan Patrol, the fathers who were arriving. But reading repulsion on the face of his confrere, he swapped his Nissan Patrol for the pick-up and sat behind its steering wheel. And without waiting any longer, we loaded the body in the pick-up, climbed at the back and drove away.
Back in the community we were asking each other: “Why was only our vehicle chosen from among the others that were at the port at that time? We wanted to see Jesus earlier at the youth gathering, but it was on the shores of the lake that he finally surprised us. Perhaps!”
Dear friends, those who seek God with a sincere conscience like the Greeks, do encounter him, of course, in the Church through its sacraments and the word of God. But let’s not forget that God’s ways are inscrutable.
The God we believe in is a God who acts and surprises us; he is able to encounter us also outside the Church. Pope Francis has repeatedly spoken of the need for a Church that goes out from itself, bringing mercy to the margins of society. The Church must step outside herself and go to the outskirts of existence.
Where is our search for Jesus leading us? Where is our obedience to him and to our vocation in life leading us? Chances are it is leading us to the cross as it did for Jesus. Perhaps it will not end up with a dramatic crucifixion, but we all well know that a faithful life to following Christ and serving others requires self-denial, a daily dying to self.
And we can do it and in the end be victorious because Jesus, Son though he was, learned obedience by the sufferings of his passion; and once made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation. It is not as an impassive hero that Jesus entered freely in his passion, but as a Son who learned to say to his Father: “Your will be done.” (He 5: 7-9)
Even if Jesus is deeply troubled and offers prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears, he still accepts to fall to the ground and die like a grain of wheat; he loses his life to draw everyone to myself.
We who often break our covenant with God (Jer 31: 31-34) and hesitate to follow him and serve him, we who follow him but maybe feel repugnance and slide back at the first difficulties, today let us present our prayers and supplications to Jesus. Let us ask him to have mercy on us; let us ask him to create for us a clean heart and write his law upon it (Ps 51).
As we get close to the end of Lent, may Jesus renew within us a steadfast spirit; that spirit of obedience without which it is difficult to follow him and see his presence in the midst of our own misfortunes and the sufferings of others.
Do you want also to see Jesus? Look around…
