Wednesday in the Nineteenth Week of Ordinary Time, August 10, 2022

The Feast of St. Lawrence

John 12, 24-26

Jesus said to his disciples: “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.”

“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat.”  Much wisdom hides in plain sight here.  There is no denying the truth of what the Lord says: a thing, such as a grain of wheat, remains itself and does not change if left to itself.  And the grain of wheat, in itself, is good.  It is a beautiful thing, and is nourishing if eaten.  The Lord, however, adds: “But if it dies, it produces much fruit.”  It becomes a more beautiful thing by “dying” and giving rise to more fruit.  The Lord is speaking of the process of termination in which, given the right conditions, the embryo within the seed grows a root that pushes through the seed’s shell into the soil and the transformation into a plant begins.  In order for there to be a plant, a seed must give itself up.  It cannot remain as it is.  But when it does give itself up, as it were, it produces fruit.  While the Lord speaks of wheat we can also think in terms of trees or vines.  A single apple seed is all it takes to grow an apple tree.  An apple may feed a single person, but an apple tree will produce enough fruit to feed many people.  The Lord speaks of the disciple here: to believe is good, but to pray and in other ways work for the conversion of the world is better.  The disciple died to himself in order to do this, obeying whatever commands the Lord gives in order to accomplish this.  Ultimately, this can lead to martyrdom.  The English word “martyr” comes from a Greek word that means “witness”: the Christian martyr witnesses to the truth of the Faith by holding fast to it until death, and in this way others witness the Faith, which will lead to conversions.

“Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.”  The sense of the Greek word here translated as “to lose” is “to destroy”.  The Christian is not called to remain static once having received the Faith but to grow in it and to nourish others in it.  This brings about a change in us, through grace, which enables us to endure suffering for the sake of the Lord.  The witness of endurance in suffering persecution is very persuasive to people who do not know the Faith.  Therefore, whoever loves his life as it is in this world destroys it and his prospects for heaven, but the one who “hates”, that is, rejects, complacency in our life here below — expecting to attain heaven without any exertion on our part — will gain eternal life in heaven.  Each of us has a part to play in the conversion of the world and we must dedicate ourselves to it, whether as missionaries here or abroad, or as those whose prayers fuel the labor of these missionaries.  The Lord provides a concrete list of examples of work he may call us to do in Matthew 25, 35-36.

“Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.”  If we follow the Lord we will find him in the stable, as the Magi did; in the Temple, as his parents did; and on Calvary, as his Mother, St. John, and Mary Magdalene did.  We go where our Lord directs us and do as he bids if we are his servants.  We can also see this not so much as place but as stages of life: we follow him in all of our stages and conditions of life.