Introductory Prayer:  Lord Jesus, teach me to follow your example of love, of your self-giving, embracing the cross of my own self-surrender. Grant me the faith and courage to die to myself so that in the furrow of life there may sprout forth new life of your grace. Bless my surrender, united to yours with fruits of the eternal life for souls that you have entrusted to me.

Petition: Lord, enlighten my mind to grasp the mean of your words recorded in Scripture: "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit". Inflame my heart with a love that is willing to surrender my entire life to do your will so that my life may bear all the fruit you want from it.

Gospel: Jn 12:20-33

Do I want to see Jesus? Do I have in my heart at least the same determination and interest as the Greeks mentioned in this Scriptural passage to pursue and persevere in seeking out Jesus until they found him? Our Lord is anxious for us to have this disposition in order that he might tell us the most intimate and important truths about himself.

Conversation with Christ:  Lord, help me always to seek you and to accept you as you are and as you revealed yourself to me in Scripture and in my daily encounters I have with you.  Let me always be convinced that you are nearest to me when I suffer in my surrender of my will out of love for you and for souls. Help me to know that in suffering, when united to your suffering on the cross, I am imitating you in your heroic surrender of your life for the salvation of souls.

Do you think the Greeks accepted Jesus self-description? Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the ruler of this world be cast out; and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. He said this to show by what death he was to die. By being obedient unto the cross and his crucifixion, he would glorify the Father, completing His plan of salvation and striking the death blow to the ruler of this world, Satan. It would be a triumphant blow that would break definitively Satan's power of evil. Jesus knew that if he went to the cross, the sight of his upraised and crucified figure would in the end draw all men unto him. Jesus was announcing the battle to come and was looking for a conquest where he would conquer and subdue the hearts of men forever and for all generations, only by showing himself to them on the cross.

The truth of his self surrender on the cross is the hardest lesson  for every true Christian and follower of Christ to heed because of the condition of our weak and fallen human nature and because our triple concupiscence that has us avoid even the mention or glimpse of such a reality. But this truth is readily confirmed by the Father's own divine words. Then a voice came from heaven, I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again. How it must have gladdened the hearts of the Greeks when Jesus revealed himself in terms of glorification! But how it must have sunk them into confusion and disbelief when they realized that this glorification was in reference to his upcoming crucifixion! 

Conversation with Christ:  Lord, you teach me in Scripture about yourself and how you would glorify the Father in your self-sacrificing love you have for all men and even for me. You did not flee from suffering but endured all of this for our salvation. Grant me the grace and courage to fulfill your desire noted in scripture: "Learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart." (Matthew 11:29)  "For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps." (1 Peter 2:21)  Lord, help me to follow your example of humility, obedience and suffering, offering everything to God the Father for the salvation of souls.

3.  Where I Am, There Shall My Servant Be Also.

Let us accept our Lord's doctrine of the cross: This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Our Lord will prove himself strong enough in His love to endure the cross, but he powerfully manifests his Father's approval here to secure us in our thoughts and to strengthen our resolution of will so that we too embrace this difficult and arduous way of the cross that is plotted out for us for our salvation.

Our Lord confirmed three truths in his doctrine of the cross: 1) Only by death comes life. 2) Only by spending life does do we retain it. 3) Only by service comes greatness. Am I able to accept these truths? Am I prepared to live my life by them? Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

"For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." (1 Corinthians 1:20-25)

Our Lord makes things clear that to accept him is to accept the cross of self-surrender in our life. Where I am, there shall my servant be also. We are not to escape even its shadow if we really want to consider ourselves to be his true followers.

Conversation with Christ:  Lord Jesus, teach me to despise this life if it jeopardizes my eternal life or the eternal life of my fellow men. Grant me the grace to follow you in the most intimate moment of your self-surrender on the cross so I may learn to live centered on you and on the mission you entrust to me.  In those bitter and difficult moments of my self-surrender, never let me lose my trust in you, but rather remember and be consoled by your words, "Where I am, there shall my servant be also". I am but your servant, Lord, and therefore my one prerogative of following you, my master, is to carry my cross and die to myself and to my self-love. Never let me forget that this is the way to life eternal with you, the source and fountain of true, authentic love.

Questionnaire:

1. What is my greatest desire? Is it to seek Jesus? Do I have true apostles around me who lead and bring me to encounter the real Jesus who lovingly surrenders and embraces the cross and death? Or is my search for Jesus hindered by my search for an easy life or my search for mere consolations, fickle things that spark my curiosity?

2. Am I willing to live the three truths of the doctrine of the cross (only by death comes life; only by spending life does do we retain it; only by service comes greatness)?  Does Christ dying on a cross discourage me from carrying mine or motivate me to imitate him?

3. In what ways have I noticed in this meditation that how sometimes I avoid the cross and even its shadows?  How can I practice more sacrifice in my life to offer up graces for the salvation of souls and to know and identify with the mission God has given me?