In today’s gospel reading, Jesus speaks about giving our lives away. But that raised the question, is life over when we have fulfilled all we desire? When do we reach this point of total fulfillment in our lives? At what point do we say: “That’s it! That’s the climax! Nothing I can do from now on will outdo this. I’ve given what I have to give.” Fr. Rolheiser looks at this transition as when our living stops and our dying begins. He goes on to say, “When does this occur? The medieval mystic, John of the Cross, says we reach this point in our lives when we have grown to what he calls ‘our deepest center,’ the optimum point of our human growth, the deepest maturity we can grow to before we begin to die. For a flower, its deepest center, its ultimate point of growth, would be not its bloom but the giving of its seed as it dies. That’s its further point of growth, its ultimate accomplishment. When did Jesus give off his seed, the fullness of his spirit? On the cross. Jesus was faithful to the end, to his God, to his word, to the love he preached, and to his own integrity. At this point, he stopped living and began dying, and that’s when he gave off his seed, and his spirit began to permeate the world. He had reached his deepest center; his life was fulfilled. When do we move from being in bloom to giving off our seed? Superficially, of course, it’s when our health, strength, popularity, and attractiveness begin to wane, and we start to fade out into the margins and eventually into the sunset. But when this is seen in the light of Jesus’ life, we see that in our fading out, like a flower long past its bloom, we begin to give off something of more value than the attractiveness of the bloom. That’s when we can say: “It is fulfilled!”