"Jesus Washing the Feet of His Disciples," by Albert Edelfelt.
Wikimedia / Public Domain.
John 12:24-26 for the
Feast of Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr
St.
Lawrence was a deacon of the pope, and died a martyr in Rome on August 10 in
the year 258.
The
word deacon comes from the Greek for servant or service.
So
then, in the original Greek of today’s Gospel reading, we can recognize a
description of a deacon:
Whoever serves me [Whoever is a deacon for me]
must follow me, and where I am,
there also will my servant [deacon] be.
The Father will honor
whoever serves me [whoever is a deacon for me].
The
Father will give the honor of eternal life to the loyal servant of Christ.
The
heroic example of St. Lawrence and the strong language of Christ’s Gospel tell
us how to be loyal servants of Christ and gain the honor of eternal life.
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.
Whoever loves his life loses it,
and whoever hates his life in this world
will PRESERVE IT for eternal life.
Christ
does not tell us to DESTROY our lives in this world.
Rather,
we may preserve our lives in this world if we want ETERNAL life more than our lives in this world ONLY.
The
truth is that our life in this world is folded into ETERNAL life, and that our ETERNAL life is folded into our life in this world.
Christ
says today that whoever hates his
life in this world will preserve IT for eternal life.
We
are to hate not life itself.
Rather,
we are to hate a life that ignores eternity.
At
present, in this world, our lives are in disorder.
Our
human nature is in disorder, out of harmony with itself.
We
each have a body, a reasoning mind, free will and feelings.
These—
body, mind, will, feelings— don’t always line up with each other, and never
perfectly nor permanently.
That
failure— that lack of order, harmony, and peace— that lack is something we
naturally and rightfully HATE.
God
did not make disorder, but hates it.
Human
sin is the origin of disorder.
In
Christ— Truly God and Truly Man— we are justified, rectified, put in order and
harmony through and through— body, mind, will, emotion.
Yet
the order and harmony will not fully wake up until our own resurrection— if— in
this world— we have hated sin and the disordered results of sin.
Christ
by word and example shows us how to hate sin and its results— how to live and
die in this world so that we gain eternal life.
St.
Lawrence, like Christ, handed himself over for the glory of the Father and for
the true, eternal good of humanity.
Christ
gave his life and blood, like a grain of wheat falling into the ground, dying,
and bearing immeasurable fruit, that we— in body, mind, will and feelings— that
we might have life in fullness and for ever.
To
us, his servants (deacons all), our Master surrenders his Body and Blood to
glorify the Father and to be the beginning of our eternal life.
What
the Master does, so does the loyal servant.
Where
the Master is, there is the loyal servant.
If
we are to have eternal life, we must hand over our lives as did the loyal
deacon St. Lawrence, and as our Eucharistic Master still does.
Turn. Love. Repeat.
