24. Amen, amen dico vobis, 24. Amen, amen, I say to you, nisi granum frumenti cadens in unless the grain of wheat terram, mortuum fuerit, falling into the ground die; 25. Ipsum solum manet: si 25. Itself remaineth alone. autem mortuum fuerit, multum But if it die, it bringeth fructum affert. Qui amat forth much fruit. He that animam suam, perdet eam: et loveth his life shall lose it: qui odit animam suam in hoc and he that hateth his life in mundo, in vitam aeternam this world, keepeth it unto custodit eam. life eternal. 24, 25. In a beautiful comparison our Lord points out that as the grain of wheat dies in order that it may fructify, so in the providence of God His death is necessary to His triumph and His glory. And applying this doctrine to His disciples, He points out that whoever loveth his life inordinately here, shall lose it for eternity, and he that hateth (a Hebraism for _loveth less_) his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal. 26. Si quis mihi ministrat, me 26. If any man minister to me, sequatur: et ubi sum ego, let him follow me: and where I illic et minister meus erit. am, there also shall my Si quis mihi ministraverit, minister be. If any man honorificabit eum Pater meus. minister to me, him will my Father honour. 26. *If any man minister to me, let him follow me.* This exhortation to follow Christ in despising this life for God’s sake, is addressed to all His followers, who are to minister to Him by the service of devout lives; but it is applicable in a special way to Priests, for to them belongs the privilege of the special ministry. To such as imitate Him He gives the glorious promise, that where He is, that is, in the glory of the Father, which as God He then enjoyed, and which as man He was to merit by His passion, there also shall His followers be. 27. Nunc anima mea turbata 27. Now is my soul troubled. est. Et quid dicam? Pater, And what shall I say? Father, salvifica me ex hac hora. Sed save me from this hour. But propterea veni in horem hanc. for this cause I came unto this hour. 27. The thought of His approaching Passion now disturbed His human soul, for as He was true man, His humanity naturally shuddered at the suffering and death He was about to undergo. Compare Matt. xxvi. 38; Mark xiv. 34. Christ, of course, permitted this fear to seize upon Him, so that it was wholly voluntary; and He manifested it at this particular time, probably lest His disciples should be tempted to say that it was easy for Him who was God to exhort others to despise their life and endure suffering. He shows them, therefore, that He dreads death like the rest of men; and St. John records the fact because of the Docetae, who denied the reality of the Incarnation, and consequently of Christ’s sufferings. See above on i. 14, and Introd. IX.