Eldho Augustine csc –
Readings: 2Cor 9:6b-10; Jn 12:24-26
In the gospel, Jesus compares our life to a seed and invites us to go through the process by which a seed transforms into a tree.
He invites us to follow him with the openness to experience death. Dying here means surrendering our wills and desires in order to become followers of Jesus. Today’s saint Deacon Lawrence was someone who followed the Lord by the total submission of the will.
He became a seed for the church by dying for Christ. We too are invited for the same, to become a seed for the kingdom of God by giving away everything or like the seed dying to bear much fruit for Jesus, thus supplying and multiplying our good works and sowing and increasing our harvest for the kingdom of God.
Today’s first reading speaks about cheerful giving. Givers who please God have a readiness, an eagerness to give. Like St. Lawrence they give deliberately and not grudgingly and not from compulsion. They give much and receive much.