Love is Sacrificing Oneself for Another

“Love is sacrificing oneself for another” said Fr. Martin. He explained that Jesus calls us to be like the grain of wheat that dies because “unless a grain a wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains only a single-grain, but if it dies it yields a rich harvest” (Jn 12:24).

Fr. Martin related a true story of how a Scottish prisoner of war sacrificed his life for the all the prisoners in the prison camp during the Japanese occupation. A shovel had gone missing and the Japanese soldier wanted someone to be accountable for it or he was going to kill the prisoners one by one. At that moment, a soldier came forward and sacrificed his life. It was later found that no shovel was missing but it was actually a miscount. The word spread across the prison camp that the soldier had died to save all and his act of sacrifice began to bear fruit- the prisoners began to treat each other as brothers and solidarity grew among them. When the Allied soldier came to rescue them, the prisoners stood in solidarity to save guard the lives of their captors because they wanted no more bloodshed. One man’s sacrifice in the prison camp had awakened the spirit of ‘humanity’ in them and like a ‘link in a chain’ in began to unite them.

God made a new covenant (Jer 31:31) with us by writing the law in our hearts through Jesus. Jesus came and died for us. It is through His death that we are saved. As disciples of Christ, we too are to sacrifice our lives for one another because unless we die to ourselves, we will not bear fruit. – SR