A SPIRITUAL PATH TO TAKE

A SPIRITUAL PATH TO TAKE

As I was reading today's Gospel (Jn 12, 20-33) I discovered a sequence of powerful ideas that seem to describe a path to follow. I am referring to the path that Jesus himself traveled and that is the path that Christians must also learn to accept to be with our Lord.

Fear seems to appear in the life of Jesus, since the idea of death hovers very close to Him (let us remember that we are already close to Holy Week and the readings tell us about this fact). We can see how Jesus himself carries within himself that internal struggle that generates anguish, since in Him his will and the will of the Father confront each other.

At the end, the determination to do the will of the Father arises in Jesus, because just as the grain must die to give life, He will be the grain deposited in the ground from which the fruits of salvation for humanity will sprout. His example is the proposal for the life of Christians, who discover that it is only by dying to this world and for themselves, to their whims and selfishness, that there is openness to the life that comes to us from God. This divine life is what can make possible fruits that in turn offer life to others.

At the end of today's gospel the idea of following Christ is once again reinforced, since following Christ is imitating Christ, and doing the things that He did requires the same love with which He did all his work. Therefore, the Christian who really wants to follow Christ must understand that serving Christ and our neighbors with love, as the Lord himself teaches us, is the clearest sign that we are walking precisely the path of the Lord. May fear never stop us from the path of the Lord; that we can always do those things that please God, as Jesus himself has not taught until he gave his life for those He loves.

Fr. Carlos Flores, OSA