The Grain of Wheat

03-21-2021Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

As we approach Holy Week, the Gospel reveals to us the things that will happen to Jesus. It does not give us all the details, but Jesus nears the fulfillment of His mission. He speaks about the whole Paschal Mystery in the image of the “grain of wheat that dies to produce much fruit.” Jesus introduces this image after some Greeks approach His disciples searching to deepen their spiritual life.

The expression would like to see Jesus, is not just being curious about the Lord. They want to meet Him, get to know Him, and hopefully follow Him to be His disciples. The Greeks are expressing a deep longing that is in every heart of those who have known Him. All of us want to see the face of Jesus and get to know Him more intimately. Like the experience of Peter, James, and John at Mt. Tabor, we want to stay with Him as long as possible. We want to know the fullness of life through Him, with Him, and in Him.

Jesus in the Gospel shows us the way. He is the Way. The cost of discipleship is not cheap, but costly demands total commitment of life. He uses the grain of wheat analogy to refer to His sacrifice, that He needs to die so that many will have life in Him. A way of dying, this sacrifice for new life applies not only to Himself but to all who wish to be His disciples. He continues with this thought with this paradoxical statement: The man who loves his life loses it, while the man who hates his life in this world preserves it to life eternal. Jesus invites all His disciples to a decision: to choose life in Christ above everything else. And producing much fruit by making this decision means the eternal life that Jesus promises.

Sowing is an act of faith and hope. It takes time for the seed to germinate, sprout, and eventually grow. It is just like following the Lord. Disciples do not go from being a seed to fruit immediately. Often, there is a period where we do not see any growth at all, but it doesn’t mean that it is not growing. Everything happens in God’s own time and in His way. Jesus, on several occasions, speaks about His “hour.” The hour is the time the plan of God is fulfilled in Jesus at the appointed time. God the Father is in control, those who wish to be His disciple should learn how to live according to His timing, in His own time. Just like in the Liturgical Calendar, Advent the expectant waiting for the birth of the Messiah. Lent is the forty days of preparation and purification for the great Paschal Mystery, the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Jeremiah gives us a light of the Paschal Mystery in the promise of the New Covenant. Most Covenant Laws construed as coming from outside, even the Law of Love, people accept it as a burden rather than a gift. That is why God plants the new Law in man’s heart. God promises that the New Law will not be a burden like the previous one. The New Law is not carved in stone or written in parchment, but placed within us: I will place My Law within them, and write it upon their hearts.

Disciples long for the Paschal Mystery not because they have to or because they have a deep love for the act of dying. But because the Lord has given them a new heart. This heart moves a disciple to love Him and join Him in the authentic way of love, by way of His cross and resurrection.