Life-through-death

In his homily on Palm Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI reflected upon "the fundamental law of human existence" that our Lord Jesus formulated when he said: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit." (Jn. 12:24)

He who wants to have his life for himself, live only for himself, squeeze out everything for himself and exploit all the possibilities -- he is the one who loses his life. It becomes boring and empty. Only in abandoning ourselves, only in the disinterested gift of the "I" in favor of the "Thou," only in the "Yes" to the greater life, precisely the life of God, our life too becomes full and more spacious. Thus, this fundamental principle that the Lord establishes is, in the final analysis, simply identical with the principle of love. Love, in fact, means leaving yourself behind, giving yourself, not wanting to hold on to yourself, but becoming free from yourself: not getting preoccupied with yourself -- what will become of me -- but looking ahead, toward the other -- toward God and the people whom he sends to me. It is this principle of love that defines man's journey, it is once again identical with the mystery of the cross, with the mystery of death and resurrection that we encounter in Christ.

The Holy Father pointed out that our Yes "to the greater life" is an ongoing one that we must repeat over and over again through daily sacrifice and renunciation.

Dear friends, perhaps it is relatively easy to accept this grand fundamental vision of life. In concrete reality, however, it is not just a simple matter of recognizing a principle, but of living its truth, the truth of the cross and the resurrection. And for this, once again, just one big decision is not enough. It is surely important at some point to dare to make a fundamental decision, to dare the great "Yes" that the Lord asks of us at a certain moment in our life. But the great "Yes" of the decisive moment in our life -- the "Yes" to the truth that the Lord places before us -- must then be daily re-conquered in the everyday situations in which, again and again, we must abandon our "I," make ourselves available, when, at bottom, we just want to hang on to that "I." Sacrifice, renunciation, also belongs to an upright life. He who permits himself a life without this ever renewed gift of self, deceives people. There is no successful life without sacrifice. If I cast a retrospective glance on my own life, I must say that precisely those moments in which I said "Yes" to renunciation were the great and important moments of my life.

The mystery of life-through-death is an awful one. It is clearly formidable, difficult to undertake and arousing fear, dread or alarm. Who of us is ever completely ready and willing to give up our precious, little "I"? Not I! Who and what will "I" be without that "I" to which I so desperately cling? And the emptiness – my God, the emptiness! How I dread the emptiness! What will be left if I totally surrender my "I" to You? Nothing! Can I really trust You to fill me with Yourself? Are You there even now in that emptiness that I so foolishly strive to fill up with mere trifles and so fervently avoid at all costs, just waiting for me to let go of my "I" so that I may know and experience my utter nothingness and thus be free to be possessed by You alone?

This is indeed an awful mystery, filled with awe and exceedingly great. The life-through-death that our Beloved Lord speaks of is no ordinary life – it is the abundant life that He Himself came to give us (Jn 10:10), "the prize of God's upward calling" (Phil 3:14). It is the pearl of great price, the treasure hidden in the field, for which I can gladly count everything as loss because of its supreme worth (Phil 3:8). It is the life of infinite love, the love of the Father for the Son – "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son!" (Jn. 3:16) -- and the love of the Son for the Father, love that emptied itself and was obedient unto death and yet could never die but gushes forth unceasingly in the splendor of the Resurrection.

"Love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all!"
by Isaac Watts, published 1707