WHILE CHRIST WAS PREACHING to the people on Palm Sunday, some foreigners, converts to Judaism who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover, approached the disciples and asked for an audience with Jesus. When the disciples relayed this request to their Master, Jesus replied:
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. He who loves his life, loses it; and he who hates his life in this world, keeps it unto life everlasting. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am there also shall My servant be. If anyone serves Me, My Father will honor him.”
“Now My soul is troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour! No, this is why I came to this hour. Father, glorify Thy name!”
Thereupon a voice was heard from heaven, saying:
“I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”
The crowd standing about was uncertain what had happened. Some believed that what they had heard was thunder. Others contended that an angel had spoken to Christ. But Jesus assured them, saying:
“Not for Me did this voice come, but for you. Now is the judgment of the world; now will the prince of the world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to Myself.”
With these words Jesus predicted in what manner He was to die, namely, by being raised upon a cross.
Restless and disillusioned, the crowd protested. “We have heard from the Law,” they said, “that the Christ abides forever. And how canst Thou say, ‘The ‘Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?” Whereupon Jesus answered them:
“Yet a little while the light is among you. Walk while you have the light, that darkness may not overtake you. He who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”
Meditation: In telling His hearers to “walk while you have the light,” Christ was telling them to imitate the travelers who make their journeys in the daylight, lest at night they lose their way. Christ Himself was the light of the world. In the light of His teaching and example men are to travel through lite. Do we try to guide our lives according to the example of His life? Or do we plunge ahead in the darkness, without imitating Him?
Information from The Life of Christ “Our Lord’s Life with Lesson in His Own Words for Our Life Today” The Catholic Press, Inc. 1959. 195-196. © 1954 edited by Reverend John P. O’Connell, MASTD and Jex Martin, following mainly A Chronological Harmony of the Gospels by Stephen J Hartdegen OFM NIHIL OBSTAT John A McMahon; IMPRIMATUR Samuel Cardinal Stritch, Archbishop of Chicago August 1, 1953. Print. Drawing by Albert H Winkler.
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