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Assist us mercifully with your help, O Lord God of our salvation, that we may enter with joy upon the contemplation of those mighty acts, whereby you have given us life and immortality; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Lessons
Isaiah 49:1-7 ; Psalm 71:1-14 ; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 ; John 12:20-36
The Meditation
This week I am sharing thoughts from Archbishop William Temple's classic work Readings in St. John's Gospel in these daily meditations.
"The hour has come and now is that the Son of Man will be glorified." The long waiting, first intimated at Cana (John 2:4) is now ending. John will use this solemn phrase two more times, at the Last Supper and in the High Priestly Prayer, both associating the phrase with Jesus' approaching death.
For it is from the Cross that the light of God's love shines forth upon the world in its fullest splendor. That his body will die is not defeat. Defeat for Jesus would take the form of cursing his enemies or sinking into self-concern. By dying, Jesus conquers hate. But it is more than that...from the Cross Jesus puts forth his might. The phrase "when I am lifted up" is never explained, but conveys a sense of finality, that is, the power of sin and death is finally abolished.
Jesus speaks as a sower, and of the seed that must die and fall into the earth in order to bear fruit. Without death there is no fruit. Without emptying one's self, there is no true life. Self-love is self-destruction; self-centeredness is sin.
(W. Temple, Readings in St. John's Gospel, pg. 187-92.)
The evangelist sets forth a radical truth: death is used to defeat death. You and I, as disciples baptized into Christ's death and resurrection, are invited to use dying to self in the same manner. By dying to all that prevents us from emptying ourselves for the sake of serving others, by dying to idols which draw us from the sacrifice of Jesus, then death leads us, and the Church, to new life. Divine love and that love alone transforms death to life.
Hymn 458
 | | King`s College Choir, Cambridge - God so loved the world |
Collect of the Day
O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Solemn Prayer Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the Cross, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. |
