In today’s Gospel of John we hear God the Father’s voice from heaven reassure Jesus in His questions and His fear at the hour of His death—and we are reminded, as Scripture Scholar Father Raymond Brown points out, that God reassures Jesus as He did the apostles at the Transfiguration—and us today—of His Eternal Love.

Also in today’s gospel we hear these words: Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.

In these words we know “that it is the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ leads to the fruit of Eternal Life.” said Father Brown. And for all of us who are Christian Disciples, we too must recognize that by laying down our lives—the self-empting love which C.S. Lewis speaks of in his book, The Four Loves, known as Agape—we see that from our lives lived as another Christ we bear much greater fruit.

For example, look to the Sacrament of Holy Matri-mony: Where two become one—the new partnership of mu-tual respect draws the husband and wife to think less of the “self” and more of the “us” in relationship to the bigger picture, the new family born of their love. This self-empting love, as Lewis notes, is best illustrated in the Cross of Christ. And in the words of Father Ray-mond Brown, “The death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ leads to fruit of Eternal Life,” the greatest “harvest” of all.

“He must increase; I must decrease.” John:3:30