Christ’s parable about the grain that falls into the earth holds a great spiritual significance. On the natural level, a single grain possess the germ of life. It does no germinate or produce until it falls to the ground, dies and is buried in the earth. Once the grain is buried, it then grows more grain and in more abundance than it had from the start. On the supernatural level, we can learn from the words of St Mary of Jesus Christ Crucified, and she said,”The proud person is like a grain of wheat thrown into the water, it swells, it gets big. Expose that grain to the fire-it dries up, it burns. The humble soul is like a grain of wheat, thrown into the earth-it descends, it hides itself, it disappears, it dies but to revive in heaven.” The humble souls are like that grain, thrown into the earth, they disappear. The supernatural supersedes the natural order, and the natural must submit to the supernatural. If we love the greater, natural order more than the higher, heavenly order, we ultimately lose the higher. The greater should be the supernatural, it’s what we should orient our entire lives to. The gospel uses the strong language, to hate, to love less this natural order, and to love the higher order more. What is in this world is temporal, it is passing. This very temporal world will not last along with our natural bodies. Our soul is eternal, our soul has the capacity to gain heaven and become a heaven on earth, your soul and my soul, for the divine to dwell in us. Saint Peter says that, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceedingly great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." We are participates in the divine nature and we all have that capacity in God’s very life within our souls. Our soul will never pass away yet our bodies will, into the ground, to become dust. Our bodies may be aging and falling apart but the closer we get to God, our souls become younger and more like unto god and the lives of the saints. In the elderly, their bodies may be deteriorating, falling apart, but they have a youth to them, a vibrancy to them. We cannot imagine what it’s like to have a risen body, except what is revealed to us through the Lord’s sacred humanity, and Jesus keeps his scared wounds.
Saint Paul says in Corinthians, “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifuly shall also reap bountifully.” All of our possessions, they begin to posses us. Paul also says in the next verse, “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly or out of necessity; for God liveth a cheerful giver.” The more we give of ourselves, the more we offer ourselves back to God; the more we are charitable, to God it becomes more evident. Saint Augustine said that God gives where he finds open or empty hands. The more we give, the less selfish and self-centered we become; by giving we understand who we are, to give to God and to neighbor. Think of everyone who give of their time; the doctors and nurses, countless hours in hospitals and nursing homes, 16-24 hours a day sometimes double shifts; think of those who are giving of themselves. Mother Teresa said, “I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” As Christians we are called to have more capacity to love; we are called to be charitable where it is not, and in the end God will reap of his good harvest. Saint Lawrence proves to us what martyrdom truly accomplishes. He was given the job of administering all the goods of Rome, and caring for the poor, and he called the poor the treasure of the church. On a temporal, natural level, it would seem that he was defeated in all levels in his death. The natural standards live in separation of supernatural standards, and his sacrifice in Gods eyes was a pure sacrifice. Tertullian said that martyrdom is the sea bed of the church. Saint Lawrence was strapped to a grid iron, and slowly roasted to death; whilst being burned, he said to those torturing him, “You can turn me over, I am cooked on this side." You don’t have to be strapped to a gridiron to feel as though your suffocating or dying or to feel that type of pain. Their pain offering was an offering to God and whereby act as the mattress the church and flourish, just like the germ of life. When the grace of martyrdom is accepted, a rich and bountiful harvest is made present, and their germs grow once falling into the earth.