Corpus Christi

 June 15, 2017

Ordinary Time – Season of Stability

William Blake spoke of seeing the world in a grain of sand. If that is possible, it is no less possible to see the world in a kernel of wheat. A kernel of wheat is wondrous, lovely to behold. So simple and yet so complex. A kernel of wheat can be crushed and ground to make flour, the basic ingredient for bread, a staple of Western life.

Bread is such an unremarkable substance. We can buy it anywhere in shapes, sizes and textures too numerous to be told. And yet out of this unremarkable, common place item comes the miraculous. Bread from heaven, bread of life, food for our journey, body of Christ. Unremarkable and yet miraculous.

Jesus chose this ordinary, everyday substance as a reminder of his presence, as his actual presence. God chose a woman to bear his son. God chose to be born as an ordinary human being. There is no such thing as ordinary in God’s plan. We are all miraculous, miracles of God’s love. God chooses us, ordinary as we are, to be bearers of God’s love to others.

Celtic wisdom sees in the young woman the flower, in the old the seed–the kernel that contains the mysteries of the universe. Within a piece of bread lies the wonder of the Almighty. Come and worship!

I solemnly assure you, unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit.       John 12:24

This post is part of a series of reflections on the church year.  Click here to follow blog