The Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian; Our Venerable Father Arsenius the Great (408-50); Arsenius the Great (450)
Read
Acts 17:19-28; 1 John 1:1-7
John 12:19-36; John 19:25-27; 21:24-25
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
If we are ever to understand our Lord Jesus, we need to realise that He often turns ideas upside down, replacing a hope for conquest with the vision and reality of the cross! When speaking of Himself being glorified, He has in mind His own suffering and death on the Cross. Glorification only comes through the cross. The cross, not just as an idea but a lived reality, is key to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and living the Gospel.
Life comes through death. We are celebrating this very fact right now in the time of the Resurrection (tomorrow is the last day of the feast!). The small grain of wheat, unfruitful and ineffective, when thrown into the ground (like being buried in a tomb), begins to grow and rise and yields much fruit. At Baptism, we die and rise in the waters, and we continue, with God’s grace, to put to death personal desire and ambition throughout our baptised lives, to live the life in God now!
We love our own life when we are moved by selfishness and a desire for security. As Christians, we are to live our lives as Christ lived His—selflessly, always seeking the other. One of my most favourite writers (and, I dare say, theologians), Catherine Doherty, suggested that if we wanted true Christian joy in our lives, we must live of our lives with a prioritized list of seeking: Jesus, Others, You.
Jesus makes it clear about greatness. It only comes in service to our neighbour. Even the world remembers those who lived with selfless love of neighbour (e.g., St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta). Loving others is never about getting what you can out of them… it is about giving what you can of yourself to them, not counting the cost.
Conquest, glory, acquisition of power, ruling over others—these are the ideas that were in the minds of the Jews who came to Jesus (and perhaps in our minds, too). Jesus sought the cross, life through death, spending life to retain it, through service to greatness…it’s a paradox, and, as one writer states, it’s also common sense!