THE INVITATION TO A GREATER HARVEST
"Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit..."
Today’s Gospel message represents the main movement of Lent – a movement from death to life. In this dying, the wheat nourishes the ground for greater nourishment and thus a greater harvest.
Recently, my husband and I experienced our second miscarriage. Grief and dying have been top of our minds and hearts. As I’ve felt a myriad of emotions all at once, often too much to understand, there also lies in my heart a deep trust. Holding the anger, sadness, trust, and hope together on most days seems hard and confusing.
In sharing this with a friend, she asked me how I could trust God in the midst of all of this deep grief and struggle and I quickly replied, “Well look at the scoreboard! God has continued to be faithful to me. I may not have noticed it at the time when I was in it, but God continues to put points on the scoreboard in my game of life. It seems that God is like a Lebron James. It’s inevitable that he will score again with his track record and skills.”
Although my reply might seem silly, God’s faithfulness to “put points on board” or as the Gospel more eloquently puts it - “produce much fruit”, has truly been a source of hope for me. We may not know how or when, but I trust if I lean into this grief, my heart will be like the dying grain of wheat and become nourished to grow a greater harvest with God’s help.
In Jesus’s dying, he brought about a greater harvest - eternal life for us all. He invites us to do the same – die to ourselves so something more can be nourished and grow. In the death of hopes, relationships, plans, health, even faith and all that we hold dear, there is often an invitation to deeper life.
What in your life might you be invited to let die so that a greater harvest may arise?
Jaclyn Guerrero