As Jeremiah describes it, the Lord will plant His Law deep within us, writing it on our hearts. It is seen as God’s response to our failure to keep the covenant. Instead of punishment God forgives our iniquity and never calls our sin to mind, giving us an image of God that will be taken up by the person of Jesus. In the synoptic Gospels Jesus faces His death with the agony in the garden, where He is described as struggling with what is being asked of Him by God His Father. Today from St. John’s Gospel we see Jesus troubled in similar fashion. The difference is that in St. John’s vision this testing is seen in itself to be the hour in which the Son of Man is glorified, a view that is underlined by the voice from heaven, like a clap of thunder, declaring, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The symbol Jesus offers us is that of the wheat grain that falls on the ground and dies. It is only by falling on the ground and dying that the grain can yield a rich harvest.
Most of us will not be asked to take extreme steps in our lives. We will, however, be asked to take such steps in many little ways every day of our lives. How do we develop the ability to take such decisions? How do we create a framework in our lives that will help us respond with the same generosity that we see in Jesus and His followers? We find Jesus in dialogue with others and with himself. And we know that before any major decision He retired to be by himself or with a few special disciples to pray. These too create the framework for our own decision-making. We don’t get on the right track out of the blue. It is through prayer, open discussion and the sacraments that we prepare ourselves constantly for whatever decisions will be asked of us, especially the decisions that will demand generosity and self-sacrifice on our part. There is the vision too of the wider cause we serve, the world in all its variety that always awaits the healing touch of Christ.