About an Hour

Answering the hardest questions our hearts ask

03/21/2021

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.

Have you ever guessed the right answer even though you did not understand the question? Maybe that is how most of us survived school: bluffing at the answers. Sometimes at school Mass I will ask the students a question and all the first graders hands will shoot up. No matter what my question is, the students often answer “God!” They figure they are in church, a priest is asking a question so the odds are good that the answer has to be God! They might guess the right answer even if they never understood my question.

One day a contestant named Debra was on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” and made it all the way to the last question. As you can imagine, the question was especially hard: “Which of the following species of birds does not build its own nest but lays its eggs in the nests of other birds? It is (A) the condor (B) the buzzard (C) the cuckoo, or (D) the vulture?” Debra had no idea what the right answer was. What was worse, she had used up her “50/50 lifeline” as well as her “Poll the Audience lifeline.” All she had left was “Phone a Friend.” Her friend Jenni, however, was not the sharpest pencil in the box, but Debra had no choice.

When she asked her the question, Jenni answered: “That’s easy; the answer is C: the cuckoo.” Knowing her friend’s reputation she seriously doubted that was the right answer. The host insisted: “I need an answer.” Debra crossed her fingers, and answered: “C: the cuckoo.” “Is that your final answer?” asked the host. Debra stammered, “Uh, yes, that is my final answer.” The host suddenly said: That answer is…absolutely correct! You are now a millionaire!” Three days later Debra had a party for her family and friends, especially her friend Jenni, who helped her with the final question. Debra said: “Jenni, I don’t know how to thank you! How did you know the right answer?” Jenni said: “Oh, come on!” Everybody knows that cuckoos don’t build nests. They live in clocks!” Sometimes we get the right answer, even if we don’t understand the real question.

In the gospel today we see another case of guessing the right answer but not knowing the real question. Some Greeks want to see Jesus and they approach Philip and Andrew. Philip and Andrew bring the Greeks to Jesus, who suddenly and surprisingly exclaims: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified!” It was like the gameshow host who declared: “You are now a millionaire!” Somehow the Greeks had guessed the right answer – namely Jesus – but they did not really understand the question their hearts were asking. Vatican II listed a few of these deep and difficult questions of the human heart: What is man and woman? Why is there sorrow, sin and suffering? What follows after death? The Greeks could not articulate or ask those questions, but like Jenni, they knew the answer.

If we want to understand how Jesus is the answer to our heart’s hardest questions, we must explore what Jesus meant by his “hour.” The word “hour” is used 17 times in the gospel of John. In the first half of the gospel, the word “hour” is used to anticipate the climax of the Cross, the hour of his death. Jesus tells his mother in Jn 2, “My hour has not yet come,” yet he provides the best wine. He tells the Samaritan woman in Jn 4, “The hour is coming for true worship.” Jesus tells the Jews in Jn 5, “The hour is coming when the dead will rise.” When the Greeks come with Philip and Andrew (Jews and Gentiles) to see Jesus in Jn 12, the stage is set, so Jesus dramatically declares: “The hour has come!” for all of these things that were foreshadowed to be fulfilled: when the grain of wheat dies and produces great fruit and where the whole world would worship.

In other words, this “hour” is when the best wine will be served, where people will worship in Spirit and in truth, where the dead experience new life, and where wheat that dies will produce much fruit. Can you think of an hour in which you find wine, wheat, worship and the world gathered at the same table? Just look around you right now in this church. The hour of Jesus, therefore, is the hour we spend at Mass, which happens to take about an hour. Our hearts ask deep and daunting questions, and Jesus is always the answer, especially when “his hour” becomes “our hour.”

When I was in high school I used to get up early in the morning and race across town to the Carmelite convent of St. Theresa for Mass at 6:30 a.m. I usually arrived 5 minutes late and Fr. Tribou would glare at me over his glasses. I had no idea why I did that as a teenager; I just had a deep desire to go to Mass. Like Jenni, I was getting the answer right (the Mass) but I did not really understand the questions my heart was asking. But somehow, I wanted Jesus’ hour to become my hour.

My parents have been sitting at home for the past year watching TV Masses and making spiritual Communions. They recently received their second shot of the COVID vaccine and are really ready to run back to Mass. My parents’ hearts have been aching with a burning question for over a year, and they know exactly where to find the answer: in the hour of the Mass. They want to make Jesus’ hour, their hour.

Sadly, though, many Catholics during this pandemic have forgotten where to find the answer when they are plagued by life’s most perplexing questions. Why? Because they have stopped going to Mass. They flounder around fishing for happiness in fortune and fame, in long-life or good-looks, in success or in sex. But those are the wrong answers to the deepest questions of our hearts.

Like the Greeks and Philip and Andrew, we, too, will only find what we are looking for only when the “hour of Jesus” becomes “our hour” – the hour of wine and wheat, and where the world gathers for worship. Guessing the right answer may help you succeed in school, but not in the spiritual life. Finding the right answer to life’s toughest questions takes about an hour.

Praised be Jesus Christ!