Reflection for Tuesday of Holy Week

John 12:20-26, Psalm 51

Jesus said: "Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say – "Father, save me from this hour"? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name."

To Christ there was a paradox, because this "hour" is not only the time of His Glorification, but also a time that He dreads. It is a time of both His anguish and exaltation - a time of pain and a time of great relief. Jesus knew all too well that, only through the willingness to relinquish one form of life can there be hope for another. What is true for the grain of wheat that must die to winter in order to flourish in the spring, so too is the paradox of our human existence.

The interior struggle of Jesus is no different than ours today. It has never been different, and as long as we remain human, it will never be different. It is once again a choice that we all must soberly seek out as we search for the resolution to our indifferent hearts, because for each and every one of us, there comes a point in time when we are faced with our very own "hour." For "those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life."

(The Hymnal 1982 - #204)

Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain,

Wheat that in the dark earth many days has lain;

Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

In the grave they laid him, Love whom hate had slain,

Thinking that never he would wake again,

Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.