“if it dies, it produces much fruit.”
Why does Jesus speak about a grain of wheat? Jesus is speaking about His death. He uses the analogy of a grain of wheat dying in order to produce more fruit to portray the fact that He must also die in order to produce great fruit. “As a planted seed must decay before it sprouts new life, so Jesus must endure death to bring us eternal life. This principle also holds true for disciples, who must die to themselves to receive the fullness of life from God and be channels of life to others.[i]
VIDEO – Wheat germination and growing time-lapse
This time lapse shows how a grain of wheat dies and springs forth a stem and life that will one day bear much fruit for the harvest. This harvest is within Christ and His body, the Church.
VIDEO – Catholicism Series – Episode 6: The Mystical Union of Christ and the Church – 1:15 (Play from 14:45 to 16:00)
This small clip shows a beautiful mosaic from a church in Rome that depicts the fruit that was produced from the cross. It was out of Christ’s death that He bears all of the fruit. (If time permits, it may be good to play the clip until 17:45 as Fr. Barron speaks on the Eucharist and Sacraments and how they integrate us into the very life of Christ.)
We should also want to serve Christ and be willing to hate our lives in this world in order to be raised and bear much fruit. “If the grain of wheat does not die, it remains unfruitful. Don’t you want to be a grain of wheat, to die through mortification, and to yield a rich harvest? May Jesus bless your wheat field!”[ii]
Why does Jesus say that I must hate my life? To be clear, Jesus is not saying that we must hate life. Life is very good, otherwise why would He create us and give us life? What Jesus is saying is that those who do not live for this world, those who understand that there is something much greater waiting for them when they die, will obtain eternal life. Those who cling to the life of this world will loose their life in the eternal world. Think about it, who is the ruler of this world? Satan. If we cling to the life of this world then we are ultimately clinging to the life of Satan. “Our Lord has spoken about his sacrifice being a condition of his entering his glory. And what holds good for the Master applies also to his disciples (cf. Mt. 10:24; Lk 6:40). Jesus wants each of us to be of service to him.”[iii] This is a great mystery!
If we do not live for this world then we will be humiliated by it. However, Jesus promises that while we may be humiliated in this life, we will be brought to glory in the next. We know this because it happened to Jesus Himself. Saint Paul’s writings to the Philippians speaks of Christ humbling Himself and becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God the Father greatly exalted Him above all created things. (Cf. Phil. 2:8-9) Saint Augustine said, “it was appropriate that the loftiness of his glorification should be preceded by the lowliness of his passion”[iv]. In other words, Jesus is brought to glory in His passion. In fact, the passion is the primary reason that Jesus came into this world. “The desire to embrace his Father’s plan of redeeming love inspired Jesus’ whole life, for his redemptive passion was the very reason for his Incarnation.”[v] For us, “This is a lesson and an encouragement to the Christian, who should see every type of suffering and contradiction as sharing in Christ’s cross, which redeems us and exalts us. To be supernaturally effective, a person has to die himself, forgetting his comfort and shedding his selfishness.”[vi]
How do we serve Jesus? In today’s reading, Jesus says that in order to be honored by the Father we must be a servant to Jesus. Saint Jose Maria Escriva gives a great example of how to do this. He said, “I have distinguished as it were four stages in our effort to identify ourselves with Christ – seeking him, finding him, getting to know him, loving him. It may seem clear to you that you are only at the first stage. Seek him then, hungrily; seek within yourselves with all your strength. If you act with determination, I am ready to guarantee that you have already found, and have begun to get to know him and to love him, and to hold your conversation in heaven.”[vii] Like the Greeks in the beginning of the Gospel reading, we must be willing to seek Jesus and try to find Him. Once we find Jesus, we must be like Philip and get to know Him. By getting to know Jesus we can then begin to love Him.
[i] Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, pg. 186
[ii] J. Escriva, The Way, 199
[iii] Navaree Bible. Pg. 164
[iv] St. Augustine, In Iann. Evang., 51, 8
[v] CCC 607
[vi] Navaree Bible. Pg. 164
[vii] J. Escriva, Friends of God, 299-300