The Hour Is Come

Gospel Reflection for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 17, 2024 -

Now there were certain Gentiles among them, who came up to adore on the festival day.

These therefore came to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying: Sir, we would see Jesus.

Philip cometh, and telleth Andrew. Again Andrew and Philip told Jesus.

But Jesus answered them, saying: The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. (John 12:20-23 DRA)

Time is very important in the Gospel of St. John. Many passages are centered on Jesus's fulfillment of the festivals of the Jewish calendar. Nicodemus comes specifically at night as a sign of his fear of the Pharisees and of his personal shame. Jesus talked with the Samaritan woman near Jacob's well at "about the sixth hour." (Jn 4:6) The "hour" of Jesus, mentioned seventeen times in this book of Scripture alone, is foreshadowed throughout the first half of the Gospel, with Jesus and the narrator indicating multiple times that "my hour is not yet come" (e.g. 2:4; 7:20; 8:30) and so the Jewish authorities and crowds were not allowed to harm him, but Jesus also says that His hour "now is," to mean that His entire mission, for which He was sent by the Father into the world, centers around His "hour". (Jn 4:23; 5:25) This is why, in the Gospel for this Sunday and immediately prior to the narratives leading up to the Passion in the second half of the gospel, He says,"The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified… Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause I came unto this hour." (Jn 12:23, 27) 

Although the "hour" of Jesus specifically means the unique event of His Passion, when "he should pass out of this world to the Father: having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end", (Jn 13:1) it is also epochal in scope, opening up a new time, the Anno Domini or the age of the Church Militant, as He tells the apostles: "They will put you out of the synagogues: yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth a service to God." (Jn 16:2) Jesus compares His "hour" to childbirth, the "hour" of a woman in labor who, despite the sorrow and anguish, rejoices in the new life of her child: "So also you now indeed have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you." (Jn 16:21-22) In this way, He points forward to the Resurrection in John 20-21 and the consolation of the new creation. However, before this time could come, in His "hour" the apostles would abandon Him and He would be left alone with His Father (Jn 16:32), when He would demonstrate the true purpose of His saving mission: "Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee." (Jn 17:1) 

By His Passion, Our Lord glorifies the Father and, as He says, "if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself." (Jn 12:32) Indeed, Christ's hour begins, by His proclamation, during His conversation with some Greeks who were interested in the Gospel, illustrating the universal evangelization of the nations for which He would commission the apostles. (Mt 28:19) This is now the task of all Christians, to evangelize and sanctify the world in Christ, so that His mission of glorifying the Father will be perfected in each of us. On this fifth Sunday of Lent, the last before Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week, we are reminded by this Gospel reading that we now live in the "hour" of the Church, an extension of the "hour" of Christ through which the merits of the Cross are dispensed throughout the world via the Sacraments in the new covenant prophesied by Jeremiah in the first reading. Although the prince of this world, Satan, is defeated, he continues to prowl about, seeking the ruin of souls, spitefully seeking to bring others to his own hellish ruin, and sadly, like Judas, he continues to have many collaborators in this diabolical quest today, both in the Church and the world. Hopefully, through our sacrifices and good works in this penitential season, we have become better equipped to discern and defeat Satan's fiery darts of temptation, plated by St. Michael with the armour of God in all its virtues. 

On the other panel of the diptych which is Christ's "hour," He demonstrates the central importance of the Sacraments, a participation in the spiritual worship of the Heavenly Liturgy surpassing all pagan and even Jewish worship, as He told the Samaritan woman. In the Wedding at Cana, Christ foreshadows the wine of His Blood which He will offer in the true "hour" of His Passion. He then connects His "hour" in the Gospel for today with the Bread by analogizing His death with a grain of wheat dying and sprouting to new life. These will then be shown in St. John's version of the Last Supper when by a kind of proto-intinction Christ dips a morsel of bread into the wine, which takes place in the "hour" of Passion Week; this is explicitly mentioned in the liturgies of St. James and St. Mark. 

Judas is revealed to be possessed by Satan and begins his demonic betrayal of Christ immediately after receiving the Eucharist unworthily (Jn 13:27): “Christ did not repel Judas from Communion so as to furnish an example that such secret sinners are not to be repelled by other priests.” (St. Thomas Aquinas) This should be a reminder to those who claim to be Catholic, like our president in the U.S., while also championing the slaughter of unborn children on national television, then receiving the Eucharist in the deception that he is a faithful Catholic when in fact he is serving the cause of Satan. This is a terrible scandal which paves his road to Hell and leads others to follow him. Let us pray, in these final days of Lent, for his forgiveness and others like him, and that we may have the spiritual discernment to obey Christ first above all others, forsaking secular leaders, unjust laws and even non-infallible Church disciplines if they violate God's commandments.