St. Lawrence.

Today, on the feast of the martyr Saint Lawrence, we heard the words of Jesus: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much fruit. Above all, the grain of wheat represents Jesus himself. As a grain of wheat, he fell to the ground in his suffering and death, and with his resurrection he sprouted and bore fruit. The great harvest he bore is his mystical body, the Church, which was born from the Paschal mystery (suffering and resurrection).

But the story of the little grain of wheat also helps us better to understand ourselves and the meaning of our existence. After the words about the grain of wheat, Jesus continues: Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (Jn 12:25).

“Hate” is a Semitic way of expressing it and means “to love less” (Deut. 21:15-17). Indeed, whoever wants to live only for himself and look only at himself is the one who loses his life. Only by giving ourselves up to others, only by saying “yes” to the richer life of God, only then will our life become great and sublime.

Ultimately, these grains of wheat that fall to the ground and die are us: our bodies will inevitably return to the ground one day. But Jesus guarantees that a new spring awaits us too. We will rise from death, and this time so that we will not die again. Lawrence succeeded in this task perfectly. He intercedes for us so that we too can succeed.