How to blow away the dust and leave failure behind you?
FINDING ETERNAL LIFE
Jn. 12:20-33
Jesus does not want to lose one of us. Each one of us is precious to Him and His Father. We are all children of His Father and He wants us all one day to be a large happy family in Heaven. So, He offers us in today’s Gospel some valuable advice. “Anyone who loves his life loses it; anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
What is this ‘life’ that Jesus is referring to, that we cling on to and thus lose? It is not just physical life, but the life that makes me the centre of the universe. I must have what I want. It can make me greedy and not care about the needs of others. I must do what I want. This can turn me into a control freak. It doesn’t matter what others feel. I’m the one to be loved and respected. Being this type of person can make me think that I am a happy and contented person. Instead I am a bore and I can make other people’s life a misery. There is just one word that sums up my life – selfish. Life is all about me, me and me! This is what Jesus means when He says, “He who loves his life loses it.” Are we clinging to that life? “No,” says Jesus, “we must let go of this life.”
There comes a time in the lives of some selfish people a rude awakening. It can come about through an illness, an accident, a bereavement, loss of work or some failure.
I once knew a man who had a thriving business, who was a success at sport. Everything seemed to have been going for him. Many people looked up to him, even envied him and thought what a great and happy person he was. But to his wife and children he was uncaring, domineering, he had very little time for them, they found him very hard to live with.
One day on his way to work he was involved in a serious car accident. He himself would tell you it was the best thing that could have happened to him. For the first time in his life he realised what a selfish person he had been. He began to realise he had missed out on the most important things in life. He had failed to notice he had such a caring, devoted and self-sacrificing wife who just wanted his love. He had taken her for granted. He realised how he may have been generous to his children, giving them material things, but he had not given the things which most mattered to them, his love and his time. He deprived them of being a loving father. Through his selfishness he had failed his wife and children. That accident had brought him to his senses. He relinquished his former way of life and found joy and happiness he had never known before.
I can tell the story of another man who was in similar circumstances as the first. He was a successful lawyer leading a very selfish life. One day one of his healthy children was struck down with a brain disorder which baffled the medical world. It made him very angry and bitter. In finding help for his daughter, he visited several hospitals and got involved with other parents. He noticed how they coped with their difficulties and he began to compare himself with them, discovering there was much he could learn. He began to accept his child’s illness and to give his precious time and money to helping those who suffered the same plight as his child.
These two men for years had loved their lives and so lost out. But the moment they stopped being selfish, and devoted their lives for the happiness of others they gained it to eternal life. We can learn from these two men.
Lord Jesus this is how You lived Your life. You came to teach us that it is only by dying to self that we truly live; it is only by spending life that we retain it; that only by service to others comes greatness. Surely Your teaching is common sense?
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