John 12:24

As a grain of corn must rot in the ground before it can bring forth fruit, so must the Son of man die and be buried before the harvest of the world can ripen and be reaped. The divine life, so long as Jesus remained on earth in the body of His humiliation, was confined to Himself. But when by His death and resurrection the earthly shell was cast off, the way was open for the diffusion of the divine life among all mankind. Our Lord's mysterious words would probably be understood by the Greeks, who, if they had been initiated in the mysteries of Eleusis, had seen the immortality of the soul represented under the figure of a grain of wheat buried in the earth that it might germinate and spring up into new life.

25, 26. Our Lord's followers also, if their labours for the conversion of the world are to be fruitful, must, like Him, 'love not their lives unto death.' Only by self-denial, self-sacrifice, self-mortification, and, if need be, by a martyr's death, can the faith be spread, and life given to a dying world. They are to expect no reward in this world, but in the world to come they shall have eternal life, and their heavenly Father will delight to honour them.