Lord, help me understand the purpose you have given me within my sphere of influence and the courage to serve you as Jesus served you in full knowledge and obedience to your new covenant, spoken through the prophets and fulfilled through Christ.
From the responsorial psalm: “A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me. Cast me not out from your presence, and your Holy Spirit take not from me. Create a clean heart in me, O God.”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 12:26)
Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.” The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder; but others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”
God speaks and is heard by the crowd in a voice that sounds like thunder. He says this after Jesus speaks to him in prayer, saying, “Father, glorify your name.” In abandoning his will to that of the Father’s, Jesus is able to fulfill his purpose in his suffering, death, and resurrection. In serving Jesus, we follow the same way he goes—from death to life, from suffering to sharing in his glory. “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,” Jesus says, “it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” Yet, even as Jesus makes clear he is fulfilling his purpose in this, he says, “I am troubled now.” As he expresses this, he answers with the conviction that comes with trust in the Father: “But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.”
“Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.” God, help me recall these words of Jesus, who suffered, died, and rose in obedience to your will and for the sake of your glory. As your adopted sons and daughters, Jesus invites us also to fulfill our purpose in doing your will. “Whoever serves me,” Jesus says, “must follow me. . . . The Father will honor whoever serves me.” Lord, help me understand the purpose you have given me within my sphere of influence and the courage to serve you as Jesus served you in full knowledge and obedience to your new covenant, spoken through the prophets and fulfilled through Christ. Place your law within me, Lord, and write it upon my heart.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
