THE MYSTERY OF THE SEED – MARK 4:26-34
“This is how it is with the Kingdom of God;
it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land
and would sleep and rise night and day
and the seed would sprout and grow,
he knows not how.
Of its own accord the land yields fruit,
first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.”
The Kingdom of God is like a seed,
buried deep within the earth, hidden.
Of its own accord, by the power it bears within,
it germinates, blossoms forth, and bears fruit.
The farmer knows not how.
He cannot comprehend and oversee
this mysterious process of transformation.
What a great mystery is here!
The seed is both the soul
and also the life of God within it.
And the soil, too, is the soul,
yet the soil is the life of God, enfolding.
For what is the true blossoming of the soul,
of the deep personal mystery alive in each of us,
but the very life of God, Father, Son, and Spirit,
alive deep within the human breast?
And what, in turn, is the sheltering space
from which the tiny and weak soul
drinks in, unceasingly, the life it needs,
so as to grow and blossom in beauty?
It is nothing but the bosom of God, embracing.
How to explain this paradox—
that God’s life feeds on the human heart,
drinking in from us that for which he thirsts,
and yet that we drink from God himself
in order to live at all?
Of course, the answer is love, and only love.
For is this not the secret of love:
that the lover lives within the beloved,
and also welcomes the beloved to live in him?
And this beautiful interpenetration of hearts
allows both to blossom in the beauty of intimacy,
transcending themselves into one another
and yet also coming to dwell, more deeply,
in the authentic truth of who each, uniquely, is.
This intimacy, dear God, blossoms in us
so often hidden from our eyes.
For you dwell deep within our heart,
there living, loving, and giving life.
Like the farmer we need only trust,
and surrender ourselves to the action of grace
that comes like gentle rains, falling.
Like the seed we need only allow
this mystery deep within us to burst forth,
according to the movement it bears within—
this impulse of the Spirit in us crying out
to the Spirit, God, in you.
And in the Spirit we will meet and be united,
in this Kiss, this Breath, who,
passing between the Father and the Son,
and uniting them in intimate love,
lets them live within one another completely.
So too, Spirit of love, live in us, breathe in us,
and let us, kissed by the Beloved of our heart,
thrill with eternal joy…the joy of being his,
and of abiding, forever, in his perfect embrace.