Time Grows Short & A Lesson In Glory

"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
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.
Whoever serves me must follow me, 
and where I am, there also will my servant be.
The Father will honor whoever serves me.

"I am troubled now. Yet what should I say?
'Father, save me from this hour'?
But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.
Father, glorify your name."
Then a voice came from heaven, 
"I have glorified it and will glorify it again."
The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder; 
but others said, "An angel has spoken to him."
Jesus answered and said, 
"This voice did not come for my sake but for yours.
Now is the time of judgment on this world; 
now the ruler of this world will be driven out.
And when I am lifted up from the earth, 
I will draw everyone to myself."
He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.

The wind swirls the sand as we walk along the desert path. The silence of the desert is oppressive as is the loneliness. But the end of our journey is in sight.  For our Savior too, the road has been long and arduous.  He stands this day in the shadow of the cross and He knows it.  But we are confused by the words our Lord speaks. He speaks of death and dying.  The words "lifted up" had a very special meaning in the vernacular.  It meant a person would be placed on a crucifix to die.  Even at this point, Jesus was not shying away from the cross. In fact, he embraces it. He tells us all of the good that will come from his death.  The devil will be driven out and all will be drawn to Him because of the Cross.  

Jesus was fully human. He had the free will to either accept the Father's demand or to refuse it.  For Him, the choice was one of love and He accepted the Cross for us.  In His obedience, Christ received the Glory due to Him and through His obedience, he canceled out our disobedience. 

On our Lenten journey through the desert, we have seen many things. We have seen ourselves as we are and not as we think we are and the reality has sobered us and has made us look for ways to better ourselves, ways to make our inside self, align more perfectly with the person we know we can be.  When we become holy as our Heavenly Father is holy, it is then that we glorify Him with our lives and participate fully in the Cross of Christ. 

Please remember to pray for the poor souls in Purgatory. They are desperate for our prayer and our care.