Sunday’s Readings: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalms 51:3-4, 12-13, 14-15; Hebrews 5:7-9; John 12:20-33
…from your Pastor’s Desk
Here is a ‘truism’
Every life worth living, every great work, has a price that has to be paid. And whatever that price is, it always involves letting go of something we value.
The child, in a sense, has to let go of childhood to become an adult.
The single have to let go of the ‘single’ lifestyle to become married.
The elderly have to let go of the work-a-day world to become retired.
Life comprises then, a series of letting go, or as todays Gospel says – ‘deaths’.
That’s what Jesus is telling us with his parable about the seed. As Jesus said to Nicodemus: The seed must die. But the seed doesn’t really die. It changes into something, greater, more beautiful, changes to what God always intended it to be as the logical consequence of its creation.
Every seed has a miracle locked up inside it: It has the capacity to become a noble tree or a gorgeous flower or a tasty meal for someone. But it can’t become any of those things if it stays on the shelf in its nice, dry little envelope. It has to let go of that comfortable spot and get down into the dirt where it’s dark and damp. It has to let go of being a little seed, if the miracle is to happen.
It is about not being afraid of letting go… and so it is with us, all of us.
The adolescent flies the nest of home to create its own niche.
The newly married plunge into a void to found a family.
The elderly retire from active work to dream new dreams.
It was always thus. It shall always thus be.
To be born, we had to die. To die, we had to be born…
The womb is our first tomb. The tomb will be our last womb.
We enter this world crying – we seldom leave it without a whimper. So life is a series of ‘dying’s’. Those who master the art of living – must be well-practiced in renunciation. We cannot go forward to the new unless we are prepared to renounce – to ‘let go’ of the old.
Such is life for us all, even for Jesus. To complete his work, he had to let go of everything, even his very life. Letting go takes different shapes for each of us.
For the battered wife or the man who’s grown hopelessly stale in his job, it may mean letting go of security and status, and moving on.
For the couple whose marriage is foundering, it may mean staying put but letting go of old habits and ideas that have got in the way. Or in extreme, threatening cases, it may mean just saying Good-bye and ‘Fare thee well….’
In every case, clinging to things as they are and refusing to let go will inevitably rob us of life and steal away our joy – all because we’re afraid of losing what we have, though it may be as tiny and insignificant as a seed.
Knowing when and what to let go is not easy. And finding the courage to do it is even harder. Only one thing makes it possible: Our connectedness to God, who will help us see ourselves clearly through his eyes, and then help us act with his strength.
God wants us to have life and joy to the full. And lest we miss the best parts of life, he is challenging us to ask ourselves a simple question:
What am I clinging to that is robbing me of life? What am I afraid of letting go?
There’s an important answer if we ask the question and then listen carefully.
So ask the question now and don’t be afraid.
God knows the answer – and I can promise you – that if you listen and believe, it is a happy ending.
Or, perhaps better stated…. a Happy Beginning.
Father Ron
