Just two days ago we heard these words in John’s Gospel, fromchapter 7: They were trying to arrest Jesus, but no one could lay hands on him, because his hour had not yet come (7.30). Here John gives us a historical fact with its theological explanation. But today it seems that everything has changed. From the lips of Jesus himself we hear, with somewhat trembling hearts, these solemn words from John’s chapter 12 that with great urgency immerse us into the full Paschal Mystery: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. These words, and the crucial shift they proclaim, are very important. They call our attention to a vital aspect of Jesus’ Passion and Death.
The statement, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified, announces to us three capital realities: 1. God’s freedom as the driving force behind the Passion of the Messiah; 2. God’s sovereignty as Lord of all history; and 3. God’s glorification through the Death of the Messiah.
Jesus does indeed approach step by step a Passion full of suffering; but we should not overlook the fact that he does so with full freedom, in a totally free, voluntary, and intentional way. In other words, the only force that drives Jesus into it is his Father’s will to save. Because Jesus is impelled into the Passion by the force of the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ own will is in perfect harmony with the Father’s. We cannot speak here of simple “blind” or “accidental” suffering, or of “suffering for suffering’s sake”. Otherwise we could not speak of a passion of love, or of a life poured out voluntarily— not as a result of unfortunate circumstances, but poured out as a voluntary libation, as a gift of self. Love always demands freedom in the giving of the heart. No one could lay hands on Jesus until his hour had come in keeping with the Father’s saving plan.
This means that God’s vulnerability in Christ Jesus is the greatest sign of the omnipotence of a God who is love and who wants to save humankind by giving his divine life for mortals. God’s vulnerability in Jesus is a weakness freely chosen and accepted by God as the most effective means of communicating his love and life to the world. It is precisely by means of Jesus’ voluntary Passion that God has placed his law of love within us, inscribing it deep within the flesh of our hearts.
So now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified: this declaration of Jesus reveals the absolute sovereignty of God. It is the Father who decides when and how his Son will give his life. Without this decision, humans are powerless to take any initiative. Their hands are tied and their own wickedness can do nothing. The Lover of the human race will hand himself over into the hands of those who hate God only when his loving heart has decided that the perfect time has come. He exclaims: For this very reason I have come to this hour! Father, glorify your Name. Here again we see that what is involved is sovereignty, but not the arbitrary autonomy of a tyrant god but the majestic supremacy of a Creator and Redeemer God, who uses all his wisdom and all his Trinitarian power only to foster and increase life, never to destroy it.
And such is also the glory of love: God is truly glorified not by triumphing over mortals and crushing them, but by overcoming the Prince of this world who is the beginning of all evil and the enemy of both God and man. This divine victory happens without the noise of weapons, and it takes place precisely when Jesus dies obediently on the Cross: Because of his full surrender to God, Jesus was heard, and ... being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. In this way, Jesus shows that his faithful love to the Father—not only as divine Son but also as human Servant—is stronger than the Adversary’s hatred, stronger than human infidelity. The Father is fully glorified by the Son when, by dying freely and sovereignly, the Son reveals who the Father is: none other than the one who sent him to give his life and bring eternal salvation to all. In Christ, on Calvary, divine Glory and human Passion become one.
But love does not want to be alone; love always wants to share in its redemptive adventure. Therefore, Jesus further tells us: And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to myself. Jesus is lifted up to heaven, paradoxically, at the very moment when he descends into death. For him, to descend into death is the same as to ascend to glory. Such is the logic of divine love, so different from ours! And Jesus ascends upward, toward Life, not to remain alone but to draw all to himself in his trajectory back to the Father. The glory of love is to die to self in order to multiply love as much as possible, for if the grain of wheat dies, it produces much fruit.
This spreading of love, moreover, is not automatic. Just as the Messiah’s giving of his life had to happen in complete freedom, so too must we accept Jesus’ giving of his life in complete freedom. Indeed, we must allow ourselves to be drawn by Jesus to his throne of glory on the cross! Where I am, there will my servant also be, he says. Where love truly exists, there also is the burning desire for union, for intensely shared life. Love never asks itself in what kind of situation—whether of joy or suffering—the beloved might be, before reaching out to her. Love only asks where the beloved is in order to reach him as soon as possible, exactly as Mary Magdalen magnificently asked the supposed gardener concerning her beloved Jesus, whom she thought dead: If you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away (Jn 20:15).
We who have gathered in this chapel this morning, eager to receive the Body and Blood of Christ: Will we be among the blessed who joyfully allow themselves to be drawn toward Jesus crucified no matter what? Shall we say to him, Here we come, Lord!, even knowing that his soul is now beginning to be troubled unto death—even knowing that, in order to produce much fruit together with Jesus, we must die to ourselves? And yet, what could be clearer and more piercing than the following words of his intimate invitation to us, his professed disciples, words so brimming with yearning and full of promise: If anyone wishes to serve me, let that person follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant also be.
