Especially in dark times, we are often invited to let go, to relinquish, to abandon, to become more detached, but not simply for the sake of more pain or more suffering, out of a sick masochism, but for something greater – for new life.
What did Jesus give up? Everything. He gave up everything. What did he let die? Himself.
Think about him on the cross. Jesus may have thought that his grand project was a failure: that his efforts to bring together the disciples were over; that his preaching hadn’t taken hold. He gives up his hopes on the cross. And, he gives up his very body. This is my body, given up for you. But the final word is not the suffering, but the resurrection. The death of the seed leads to the marvel of the blade of wheat. The crucifixion leads to the marvel of the resurrection.
And the one who made the unimaginable sacrifice, who relinquished everything, was rewarded with unimaginable new life.
I know what happens when you allow those grains of wheat to fall to the ground and die. It’s painful; it’s wrenching; it seems impossible at times to let go of whatever parts of your life are keeping you cold and buried in the ground. But once that seed dies, there is always, always new life.
And if you doubt that, just stick around till Easter Sunday.
--Fr. James Martin, Facebook, March 22, 2015
Image source: Fritz Eichenberg, The Black Crucifixion (from The Catholic Worker portfolio, 1963), http://sacredartpilgrim.com/collection/view/19
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