Death to Life

Gospel: John 12: 24-26

There are two ways in which a grain of wheat comes to death.  The first way is when that grain falls from the stalk and enters the earth.  There, it becomes buried in soil, but rises into a new stalk of grain that produces an abundance of new grains.  Thus, what was once just a single grain of wheat is now an entire stalk of numerous wheat grains.  In this manner of death, the grain of wheat multiplies itself into many more grains of wheat.

The second way is when that grain of wheat is harvested and put together with many other grains of wheat in order to produce a loaf of bread.  Here, this single grain of wheat comes together with many other grains in order to produce a unified body, a loaf of bread that will be used to nourish people at the meal table.  This single grain of wheat becomes food for the very survival of others.  

It is no coincidence that the grain of wheat is our central symbol of the Eucharist, for in the Eucharist we as individuals come together to form this one loaf, this one body of Christ in order to nourish others in the world.  And this Eucharist, commemorating the death of the Lord, is the path to our own death to self so that many others may sprout forth as new stalks of grain in the world.