Suddenly, we are a week ahead of our Lenten schedule. This story belongs to the Week of the Passion of our Lord, because it occurs sometime between the days we call Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday. It was during that interval that a group of Gentiles, who were simply called Greeks, approached Philip with the request to see Jesus. Jesus must have been in some sort of seclusion pondering, no doubt, what was about to happen to him. His retort to Philip and Andrew, when he heard the request, certainly suggests that he has been making a life or death decision - and he has chosen to die. Just think about that today, and throughout the remainder of Lent. No one was going to take his life from him; Jesus was about to lay it down to carry out and fulfill God’s plan to reconcile people to himself. …