4th Friday of Lent (March 15). But if it dies

Prepare to Listen.  Whoever serves me, the Father will honour.
 
Prayerfully Read John 12:20-26
20Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks.  21They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’  22Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.  23Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  24Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.  25Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  26Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.  Whoever serves me, the Father will honour.
 
Prayerfully Wonder and Reflect
How would you respond to the Greeks’ request to see Jesus?
 
We don’t know whether the Greeks ever got to see Jesus.  We do know that Jesus used their wish to see him as a crucial teaching moment for his disciples.  His teaching isn’t easy to understand.  It’s not clear where to draw the line between what he teaches about himself and what he says about his disciples.  One thing is clear, he teaches about death, both his own (“to be glorified” is a reference to his death), and the necessity of death (spiritual) for his disciples.
 
I once thought that the parable about the grain of wheat was only about the meaning of Jesus’ death and thus I failed to see its relation to death in my life.  Then one day my life spiraled out of control.  I entered a dark pit of doubt and unknowing that felt like a death.  The old certainties were in ruins.  Thanks to the guidance of a mature Christian, I discovered this is the way of true growth in the spiritual life.  To live, we must first descend into the ground and die.  I stopped fighting the dying process.  I learned, as Richard Rohr writes, “the idea that the spiritual life will eventually require us to descend into a dark tunnel, to descend into unknowing and doubt, to descend into a loss of certainty, to descend through a process that feels like dying”[1] was necessary and healthy.  Without this descent into doubt and unknowing there can be no true growth.  To bear much fruit, we must first die.
 
Recall your own experiences with doubt and unknowing and what growth it led you to.
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord, help me follow your way even to death, so that by dying I may bear much fruit for your glory.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Serve Jesus by following him, even to “death.”
[1] https://cac.org/doubt-a-necessary-tool-for-growth-2021-02-01