Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Readings for Tuesday of the 6th Week of Easter

First Published: Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Wheat

Reflection:

As we hear Jesus talking about his impending ascent and Paul doing great signs and miracles in the name of Jesus, we cannot help but think of the great analogy of wheat for the life of the world. The image is just so right.

If we think about a stalk of wheat when it is ripe, it looks magnificent, a waiving golden sea. Then comes the harvest and almost all of what had been visible to us is taken away and used for nothing more than beading for animals or ground cover. Bailed as straw it is of little use. The grain on the other hand, thats the important part.

If we look at our lives in comparison to wheat we can see that all we grow for, all we work for is so the seed can grow and flourish. In the case of this analogy, the seed could be viewed as our children or as the seed of our faith. And what of the body that is the wheat plant when we have matured and the seed has been produced for the world- that worthless hulk has served its purpose and goes back to the earth.

It is the seed, the grain that is important and it survives. But, if we look at it, this tiny bit of material, there is nothing that would tell us it is alive. A seed looks like just another piece of organic matter. Yet, if it is put into fertile soil and given water the life within it springs forth. That seed, and its hundreds of brothers and sisters, bring an abundance of new life into the world.

The Lord Jesus himself, our Eucharistic Bread, was harvested so that the seed he produced could become food for the whole world. We must ask ourselves are we growing like a weed would grow, producing no grain, growing for the sake of growth. Like wild grapes, they produce no fruit. They look like grape plants but all they do is grow. They grow and strangle any plant growing near. If they cant reach the plant with their tendrils, they shade it out with their broad leaves. But they produce no fruit. Are we to be like them?

Is our growth for the sake of producing the good seed? The grain that feeds others, the grain that gives life and hope to the world? When we live each day for Gods glory and not our own we are growing toward the Son. When the work we do is to demonstrate that we are following Gods commandment to love one another and not to tear down another person or family, we are growing toward the Son. When the words that come out or our mouths give joy and hope to the grieving or hopeless we are becoming that grain that gives life.

Each day we can choose to grow toward the Son or to be like the wild grape vine that grows to no other purpose than growth itself. We choose. We decide each day what we will be. Today I choose to become wheat and pray that God gives me the strength each day to make that same choice. Pax