Theme: The Christian Cross as a Gateway
to Heaven
In our lives we really desire good
things but sometimes, we are not able to pass through crucibles in other to get
them. Most students dream of graduating with first class certificates but only
a few are really burning extra candles. Every achievement must be attained
through hard work. That is why in today’s gospel (John 12:20-33), Jesus reiterates this
principle that nothing good comes easy. We must work it out under difficult
situations. Jesus uses the analogy of the sown wheat to demonstrate that to
redeem man, he must die and for us to gain eternal life, we must also die just
as a sown wheat must die in the ground before it yields a rich harvest. The
problem is that most of us are reluctant to work hard. This reluctance is found
in our physical and spiritual lives. Sometimes, we want this or that from God
but we can’t kneel in prayer to get them. We want to go to heaven but we can’t
do good and avoid evil. We want to be exceptionally spiritually gifted but we
can’t work hard to develop these spiritual gifts, etc.
Today, Jesus invites us to learn
from him how to boldly accept unpleasant situations for a pleasant result. The
gospel began by narrating how some Greeks who came for worship at Jerusalem
requested to see Jesus through the Apostles Philip and Andrew. Though John did
not tell us whether
