Springtime is a busy time in our Mary Garden. Birds fly in to the fountain to drink, a stray cat wanders through occasionally ready to pounce on one of them. Insects, a solitary butterfly, flit through the spring flowers. But seeds are our main visitors these days, seeds in abundance, mostly from the Norway Maples, oaks and conifers, but there are others. Small seedlings we didn’t plant and don’t recognize are showing up all over our garden floor.

“We live in a world of seeds. From our morning coffee or bagel to the cotton clothes we wear and the cup of cocoa we might drink before bed, seeds surround us all the day long.” Thor Hanson writes in his delightful book, “Seeds” (New York, 2016) 

Seeds are the way plants reproduce, and this is that time. Hanson describes a seed as “a baby in a box with its lunch.” They come in all shapes and sizes. Seeds from our Norway Maples have wings; the conifers send our their seeds in armored cars. They come in abundance. Some of these babies will be grow to be maples and conifers.

Here we are in spring, seed time, an abundant time. The seeds tell us that. Do we also learn from them about God, a Springtime God, a Seedtime God? 

Seeds nourish, unite, endure, defend, travel, Hanson says in his book. They’re traveling now. Grasses, like wheat and rye and others, travel most. They’re built to travel far, every where.

Early Christian commentaries often speak of the Bread of the Eucharist made up of so many grains of wheat. They’re seeds gathered into Jesus Christ, and then scattered again to bring life wherever they go, everywhere. Our gardens and the earth at springtime are a book to learn from.

These days were rogation days in our previous church calendar. Today we shouldn’t forget to ask for God’s blessing by blessing our fields, our gardens, our backyards. There’s a beautiful blessing prayer in the church’s Book of Blessings, which begins by recalling scripture readings, like the parables of Jesus- the sower, the mustard seed, etc…

From despair in time of drought… Deliver us, O Lord.

From wastefulness in times of plenty…Deliver us, O Lord.

From neglect of those in need…Deliver us, O Lord.

From blindness to your presence in our world…Deliver us, O Lord.

From hunger and thirst…Deliver us, O Lord.

Lord of the harvest, you placed the gift of creation in our hands and called us to till the earth and make it fruitful, We ask your blessings as we place these seeds and plants in the earth, May the care we show them remind us of the tender care you give your people. Amen.

The Jesus Seminar, a group of scripture scholars formed about 30 years ago, aimed at discovering the authentic words of Jesus. They claimed the words of Jesus in this part of John’s gospel are so different from his words in other gospels that they are not his, but were created by a later disciple.  New Testament scholarship has moved on since then and the Jesus Seminar doesn’t have much support these days. 

Many New Testament scholars, among them Raymond Brown,  see the Last Supper Discourse as an example of the way many ancient writers summarized the teachings and mission of  great figures as they leave their disciples in death. John’s gospel summarizes Jesus’ teaching and mission at the Last Supper, the night before he died. It’s a Passover celebration. Jesus addresses them as “little children”,  as a father might address his children during Passover, explaining to them the message of that saving feast. 

Jesus announces his glorification. He is going to the Father.  His disciples will participate in his glory.  “ I am the vine, you are the branches.” (John 15:1-8)  They are to love one another as he has loved them. Loving one another is his supreme command to them. If they keep his commandments Jesus promises them a joy that no one can take from them. 

Yet, they will not see him for “a little while.”

The Last Supper Discourse is a summary of Jesus’ teaching and mission, but it  also reveals how he is with them and with us during the “little while.”  “I will not leave you orphans. “ In sacraments, especially the Eucharist. Jesus promises his disciples he will remain with them. He fulfilled that promise in sending them the Paraclete; he also promised he and his Father will come and dwell with them.

We can hear in the Last Supper Discourse words Jesus spoke to his disciples then, words he  spoke during his mission, and also words he spoke in the days after his resurrection. After Jesus rose from the dead, Paul tells his hearers in Antioch in Pisidia, “for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. These are now his witnesses before the people.” ( Acts 13:30-32) In the “many days” he appeared to those who  came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem  Jesus prepared them for his sacramental  presence among them in signs.  We can imagine they questioned him like Thomas and Philip and the others did. They were unsure and uncertain. As he ate with them and drank with them he assured them he would remain with them in signs in that period of time, ”a little while.”  

“A little while” is our time now.  He is with us in this “little while.” 

his icon, Christ the Vine, was painted by a famous fifteenth-century Cretan iconographer Angelos Akotantos (d.1450) before the Byzantine Empire collapsed, leading to the separation of Eastern and Western churches. The icon is a call for unity of the churches.  

For this week’s homily please watch the video below.

From this Thursday until the end of the Easter Season, our gospel readings are from the Farewell Discourse of Jesus at the Last Supper. (John 15-17) His disciples experienced him when they ate and drank with him at the Last Supper and after his resurrection. Their experience indicates how we meet Jesus in the Eucharist and the other sacraments. We know him in signs.

His disciples were troubled when told he would leave them physically. They feared becoming orphans. Now they were to know him in another way. “Do not let your hearts be troubled and afraid… I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.” (John 14:1-6)

 “A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me,” Jesus told them. ”So they said, “What is this ‘little while’ [of which he speaks]? We do not know what he means.” (John 15:17)

Our experience of Jesus is similar to theirs, a “little while” experience. We know him in signs like bread and wine, through a faith that accepts his presence in signs. He called us blessed, who believe and do not see.

“In the sacraments Christ himself is at work” the catechism says, “ it is he who baptizes, he who acts in his sacraments in order to communicate the grace that each sacrament signifies.” (Cat. 1127)  Yet it’s the Christ of faith at work. “Although you have not seen him you love him; even though you do not see him now yet believe in him,” Peter says. (1 Peter 1:3-9)

John’s Farewell Discourse became the church’s basic source for learning about the world of signs that Jesus left his disciples after his resurrection. We read from it the next weeks of the Easter season. Reflecting on it refreshes our faith. He assured them. He is the Vine, we are the branches. He will strengthen us.

Readings here

The Easter Season is dominated by the mystery of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. He ascends into heaven and we no longer see him physically, but in signs. His Spirit causes his church to spread.

A cursory reading of the Acts of the Apostles may give the impression that the church spreads like wild fire. “The word of God continued to spread and grow.” (Acts 12,24) Leaving the church at Antioch, fearless missionaries like Paul and Barnabas, blessed by the Holy Spirit, set out for other towns and places and brought the gospel to the gentiles. 

It seems like a lively church, confident, joyful, united, focused on saving the world, with no doubts or questions. “O God, let all the nations praise you,” our psalm for today says. Yet, a careful reading the Acts reveals confusion, division, uncertainty in this church. In Antioch in Pisidia Paul remarks “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships
to enter the kingdom of God.”( Acts 14) The church then was more like our own church today than we suspect. The church grows only through the mystery of the passion and resurrection of Jesus.

The recent election of Pope Leo XIV seems to me to be a surprising promise of resurrection.

We pray:

“May God have pity on us and bless us;
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation.”

The face of the Risen Christ is always a surprise.

“Merciful God, Word come into a dark world, 

remember us and bless us.

 Jesus Christ, son of Mary, turn your face towards us and enlighten us. 

 You came into the world as light, so that we might not remain in our darkness. 

Now turn your face and shine on us,

so that we may make your way known upon earth, among all nations.”

We’re reading about the missionary journeys of Paul from the Acts of the Apostles and the Last Supper discourse of Jesus with his disciples from the Gospel of John these final weeks of the Easter Season, readings so different in tone. The Acts of the Apostles follows Paul on his fast-paced, adventurous mission to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth. John’s Gospel takes us to the hushed Supper Room where Jesus speaks his final words to his disciples. 

We need to listen to the Voice from the Supper Room.Maybe we’re not getting thrown into prison or confronted by shouting crowds like Paul, but our daily journey and our duties in life can try us just the same, some days more than others.  

Jesus describes himself as Bread, Shepherd, Vine, and Friend in the Easter readings from John’s Gospel.  He wasn’t speaking only to his followers then, he’s speaking to us now. He also said “the Father and I are one.”

The world too receives daily bread, a shepherd’s care and the friendship of God. The Spirit has been sent to teach all truth. The voice speaks to more than believers.

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world with end. Amen.