New life in the Death

Gospel Thoughts

*Ordinary Season : 19th Week - Tuesday*

*Feast of St Lawrence the Martyr*

*GOSPEL - Jn 12:24–26*

*First Reading - 2 Cor 9:6–10*

*New life in the Death*

*1) The death of the seed*

In the process of Sporting the seed, the it loses its originality

It has to break itself and some part of it, will decay and it no longer remains in the seed form 

In other words we can say that, in losing some of its aspects, the seed dies to these aspects. 

So death occurs only in certain aspects of the seed and not the entire seed dies altogether

*2) The New life after death*

When some aspects of the seed dies, the seed takes another form, which itself is called new life 

To have this new life, the seed has to undergo some major changes, which results in new life 

So the general understanding *"new life comes after the death of some aspects of the seed* Hence we can say New life comes always through the death 

*3) The need of death for new Life*

There is no shortcut for new life, other than the death of old aspects of our life 

Only when certain aspect of the reality dies, the new forms emerge. Without the death of these unwanted things, there is no new life 

So the death is the precondition for the new life 

*4) Apart from physical death, we need to realise the other forms of death*

The moment we think about death, we analyze about the physical death of a reality 

Giving to our understanding, physical death is the end of everything. But physical aspects are only one part of the reality. There are also other realities in our life, to  which we need to die in order to have new life 

The following things fall into this category

The death of anger, gives new life peace and harmony 

The death of pride, brings new life to humility

The death of revenge, makes the life of forgiveness possible

The death of greed, gives new life to generosity

The death of selfishness, gives new life to selflessness

The death of, self-centeredness gives new life to service, sacrifice, 

The death of hatred gives new life to love 

The death of falsehood gives new life to truth 

So the above examples make us clear the death of certain things in  life, bring new form of life, which is very much necessary

*5) In actuality the seed does not die, only certain aspects*

The careful analysis shows us, in actuality the seed does not die. Only certain aspects of it die. 

This also shows that, life is more powerful than the death. Death can't take control of all the things. Only at the peripheral level it can act 

So life and new life is more powerful than the death

*6) The need of Daily death, for the New Life* 

The new life always, brings new fruit. 

Life is meant for producing new fruits every day. So it also demands that the process of death, should take place every day in life 

Since there is no life without death, in our life too, unless certain aspects die in our life, no new life is possible

If we have experienced the new life in our life, definitely there was death of many of the aspects which were hurdle to new life 

The main purpose of our life is to die every day to those things, which hinder the new life, which gives us new direction.

*If so like seed am I ready to die?*

*Think about it*

*God bless you and your family. Praying for you and your dear ones*

*Fr Maxim Dsouza*

*Jeppu Seminary*

*Mangalore*