Reflection on the Gospel of the Tuesday In The Nineteenth Week In Ordinary Time
John 12:24-26
This text is within the context that Jesus has reached Jerusalem, and the hour of his glory is upon Him. In the previous chapter (John 11), we were presented with the event of Lazarus’ Death, and Jesus’ astonishing act of bringing him to back to life. Jesus now has a target on his back. The people in power and those having authority have set themselves to doing away with him. Some Greek seek an audience with Jesus, and he knows that his actions and words are being told/discussed in foreign lands… Only one thing is left – the final sign of God’s presence and Hope for Mankind… That all may lookup to the one crucified, and live.
I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
- A filled bucket cannot be filled with anything more
- So also a person, full of himself or full of his own ideas and understanding, cannot be made to change.
- No matter what you try to instil in that person, it is like water on a ducks back.
- That bucket of self needs to be emptied to be filled with New Wine, New Understanding, New Perspective and New Hope
- Once filled with this Newness there can be no place for the old.
- So it is with the meaning of Baptism
- To be reborn
- is to be born in a New Way
- by emptying of the old self
- and by getting drunk on the Newness of God’s Spirit
- God’s Spirit who reveals God and His heart to us.
- Choose then;
- Will you empty yourself and get drunk/full of God’s Spirit
- or would you want to be full of your self.
- For the one who has God’s Spirit
- Has God alongside and in Him
- And he understands freedom and meaning
- Such a person is God’s beacon of grace and blessing to everyone around.
He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
- The wisdom of the world makes people look inside themselves
- with fear and selfishness
- and this leads only to a self-destructive lifestyle
- The one who prioritises neighbour
- even to the cost of loosing His own life
- has the spirit of God in him
- because he acts in the Wisdom of God
- and that Wisdom is ready to self-empty for others
- It is also know as Love.
- Thus, God is with Him, and holds him close to Himself.
If any one serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if any one serves me, the Father will honour him.
- If with our lips we say, we love God
- Then we must be ready to self-empty ourselves
- in the pursuit of him.
- And this is the sign by which people will recognise an individual as God’s Child
- The fruit that he bears
- will speak of his relationship with God
- for God resides with Him.
One Response
Excellent! I do hope all who read the reflection will benefit spiritually.