Jesus speaks of the effects of his death.

We give little thought to death when we reflect on ourselves. When we reflect on ourselves, we provide a little idea to end. The young do not think because they are still young.
Healthy people of mature age, on the other hand, still want to prove something and leave something behind. The elderly tell themselves that it is not yet so wrong with them. We even see that when we know that our relative is on his deathbed, the doctor is giving up, and science is not helping, there are still cases that we deceive ourselves and those who should prepare themselves to meet God as believers. But our faith teaches us that our coming here into the world was no accident and that the end, the death of man, is not a definite end but a transition to a new life.

This is also what today’s Gospel teaches us. To the Jews who did not want to accept the teachings of Christ, shortly before his death, when Jesus knew that the accomplishment of his mission on earth was near, he said: “You are from below, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world.” (Jn 8:23).

From all the events surrounding the words of the Lord Jesus that we have been dissecting in the last few days of the week, it is well known that the Jews cannot accept and understand two things. They do not know where Jesus is coming from and where He is returning to. They don’t understand this, even though He keeps telling them that He came from the Father and returned to Him again.
Jesus knows that going to the Father will be accomplished by his death and suffering. The Jews seem to understand his departure as a suicide death, and they do not and cannot follow him on this journey. But those who genuinely want to follow, find and understand the Lord Jesus must believe that his death is the ransom price for our world. This means that when Jesus is lifted on the cross, He will be able to heal and cure all people who are bitten by the serpent’s sin. Through faith, people can understand that Jesus is the Son of God who, by dying on the cross, atoned to the Father for our sins and thus showed us the way to His Father. Therefore, He became “the way” for us.

These words are not a path to pessimism and hopelessness for us believers; on the contrary, they are hope and optimism for us. Even if it is difficult when to say goodbye to his dear ones at the moment of death, a believer knows that it is not a definitive end, and that is why death must not be taken tragically. The memory of it is not a cause for us to break down in our attitude. The Lord Jesus is our model and example. We see that for Jesus, His death was a triumphant ending of life by going to the Father.

It is necessary for us as believers to adopt this attitude of Jesus and learn to live with the thought of death in mind. It is a beautiful thing when one does not have to fear that end may meet him wherever and at whatever moments, that he is always ready to come before this Christ in whom he believed, by whose words he tried to live, and in whose reward he hoped and believed. It is wonderfully beautiful and precious to live in the presence of God, to be able to accept his will, whether it be at midnight or in the morning.
For us, then, today’s Gospel is a lesson that the suffering and death predicted by Jesus is a guarantee of new life.

In his poetry collection Through Your Eyes, Michael Quist writes in the poem “Lord, I have no time…” and then, having already recognized the meaning and value of Jesus’ words, he concludes by exclaiming: “Lord, I have time!” This should resonate with us as well. We should not only realize that we have to make time, but we should also say it to Jesus more often: Lord, I have time!