17 March 2024 (John 12:20-33)

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Please read the passage before the homily.

My sisters and brothers, in your families.

 “I assure you that if the grain of wheat not fall to the ground and die, it remains just a grain of wheat.  But if it die it will produce much fruit.”

I am no farmer, but I know that seed, once planted, has to die in the earth to produce its fruit from the earth; one deed dead, much wheat living.  Now farmers are plowing and sowing their seeds for the harvest.

 Christ has died, like seed, in order to rise from the dead with his unending life so we can all live forever.  This is the harvest from having been planted in the garden of death.

Today in the gospel, some Greeks come looking for Jesus.  The Greeks are non-Jewish people.  The seed that is Jesus falls in the garden of Greeks, in the garden of pagans.  The Church begins to grow and includes non-Jewish people.

Today in this assembly we have the harvest from that first intervention of the Greeks/gringos.  You have received the seed of the word of God and the life of Jesus has flowered in your families.

Christ has died and through our baptism we have died with him.  Christ is risen from the dead and we ourselves have risen with him.  Already in this life now we share in the glory of Jesus because in the mystery of the sacraments we have died and risen with Christ.

Now, despite our difficulties, our pains, our strong tears, we are in the body of Christ who is always in the glory of the Father.  Now we can see Jesus with the Greek pagans of today’s gospel.