Jn 12:24-26 (20-26)

«If the grain of wheat fallen to the ground does not die, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit» [Jn 12:24].

We ask ourselves: how is it possible in any situation to sprout precious things? How to become fruitful?

And the pleasure of living? Can we experience at least brief moments of eternity?

In advancing the spiritual journey, we discover that it’s not enough to be far from idols: we desire to take successive steps.

We want fullness and joy; do not be suffocated in tasks without enchantment, in mechanisms without lyrical step.

Is Christ really capable of providing our existence with a wing stroke,  exploding life - managing commitments differently, and wincing with happiness?

Or does he definitively dig us the grave, with his Hiding … which seems an option of death?

We would like to deepen, and maybe from simple admirers become Apostles - involved in the lively and growing secret of Jesus.

The best way to «see» the Lord [v.21b - that is, to understand and experience his Life-generating Face] seems to approach a natural process. And the image is taken from the agricultural world.

In order for wheat to sprout in a field, it’s necessary that the grains disappear into the earth.

Only from a transmutation can the prodigy of a process of new genesis blossom, and that birth that extends to the ‘hundred for one’.

The stakes are staggering: life does not develop starting from some (artificial) purpose but from the very ‘nature’ of the Seed that has a whole particular vitality inside.

To achieve what characterizes us, success or the ability to become "directors" of oneself has nothing to do with it. Indeed, perhaps it’s better to learn to wait, and act slowly, harboring the Sap that ‘comes’.

Nor can we manage with a substitute religious observance, which often [trying to put things right, instantly, outside] is transformed into a reservoir of intimate discomfort and neurosis.

Vocational growth in fullness of person and being, contrasts every opinion far from the Roots of essence and its metamorphoses.

Based on his own experience, Jesus means:

Life partner of the prophet who corresponds to his "absurd" Calling is loneliness, being in the corner, not being sought - and feeling treated as inadequate, dishonourable or failed (precisely by experts and people of rank).

It’s not expected that we can take care of this type of frank practice with ourselves, with God and men, taking shortcuts of cotton candy: we must meet our own and others "low floors".

The path of fatuous relationships - facade, often suffered and of overweight - will never correspond to us.

That’s right: we will go straight to the goal only by entering a new normality, and remaining focused on our authentic plot, where the Call of God lurks.

Here bitter situations will prove to be transitory.

And if in the meantime we have not let go because of some lack of recognition or belonging, history will find us somewhere else.

But let us continually beware of unevangelical spiritual proposals - precisely, lacking in re-Births.

The wise dimension of the «dying Grain» is not about voluntarism and self-control, which will disconcert us within, diminishing the sacred Oneness of soul and Vocation.

Manners discipline that takes as its 'model' the already established [and “how we should be”] will only baffle us; it will make us sick!

Excessive control, in fact, in every concrete circumstance will diminish our exceptional inclination of varied being, will bleed the personal Mystery, and the growing flowering of new Life.

Instead, the Lord wants us to be ready to re-create ourselves and regenerate the world - even in times of global crisis.

[St Lawrence,  August 10, 2024]