In March it has given me a lot of joy to see the emergence of daffodils and other spring flowers in my garden and the cherry blossom growing on our trees. The sudden emergence of this new life is a reminder that our long winter is coming to an end and that we are transitioning into the season of Spring and the emergence of new life that comes with it.

The theme of new life is evident in the text that we have today from John’s Gospel. Within the reading we have a group of gentile Greeks who approach the disciples asking to see Jesus. In response to this request, Jesus speaks to his disciples about his glorification and his death. He talks to them about a single grain of wheat, that falls to the earth, and then goes on to bear much fruit.

Jesus’s disciples lived in an agrarian society where people would have been very familiar with the cycles of planting, crop growth, and harvesting. Jesus uses agrarian imagery because he knows that his listeners would be able to relate to it. The disciples would know that decaying and dying plant life would fertilise the soil and make it rich for planting. The seed that is planted in the soil would then lie dormant until it germinates and begins to grow. In time, and under the right conditions, it sprouts into a new plant and then bears much fruit for the harvest.

Jesus alludes to his own death and resurrection as he speaks of a seed that is buried in the ground that springs up. However, he is also talking about the life of faith and discipleship for those who would follow his path. Following Jesus involves death and new life, putting to death our old selves and finding new life in Christ through the Spirit. Indeed, we cannot find that new resurrected life, and the fruits that come with it, without first experiencing a death within us. This is also the case in the life of the Church, which is renewed by God’s life-giving Spirit.

When reading this passage this week, I was reminded of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of El Salvador, Óscar Romero, who dedicated his life to social justice and non-violence in the name of Jesus.
Following the recent death of the activist, Doña Sarita, he preached this on the Gospel reading that we have today, on the need to involve ourselves in the struggle for a better and more loving world through giving and sacrifice. You can read the full text of his sermon here:
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/10/12/homily-oscar-romero-was-delivering-when-he-was-killed

As he finished his sermon a man, most likely hired by a right-wing leader, came into the Church and killed Óscar Romero in front of his congregation. Now declared a saint by the Catholic Church Óscar Romero serves as an example of the discipleship that Christ advocated and the love that Jesus demonstrated through the cross. Óscar Romero was willing to follow Jesus and serve the Kingdom of God, putting his own life at risk so that others might also find life in Christ.

As we move through Lent and towards the season of Easter, we are encouraged to reflect on what it means to follow Jesus on the way to the cross and the resurrection. This journey involves a willingness to give up and also to receive new life from God in Christ through the Holy Spirit. I pray that God would help us in that giving up and in receiving that new life. May we bear the fruit of the Spirit together as we each grow in Christ Jesus our saviour.