We can learn a lot from the smallest things in nature. In
this week’s Gospel Jesus says to his disciples: “I am the true
vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in
him will bear much fruit. . .” Most of us are familiar with
grape vines, but I think we are even more familiar with just
plain, old grass. Take a blade of grass, for example. When
the dry seasons come, grass withers, but it doesn’t die. When
brush fires ravage the tinder-dry landscape, grass is scorched
but not destroyed. Grass survives because it grows from the
ground level rather than from the tips of its roots. Growth
energizes from its center, concentrated near its roots, so even
the driest, most withered grass is always ready to spring back
to life with the next rain.
There is something else about the way grass grows.
Besides growing from the seed it scatters to the winds, grass
sends out stems along the surface of the ground that sprout
new leaves at every joint. That’s why grazing animals can
feast off the grasses without nipping their life. Connected to a
common stem, blades of grass can re-grow and rejuvenate.
A simple blade of grass is actually a Gospel parable
teaching us the importance of “sinking our roots into the love
of God,” enabling us to ride out life’s tragedies and to flourish
despite them. Thus we can truly experience resurrection in the
“next rain.”
Grass also teaches us how we are connected to Christ, and
through Christ, to one another. Because of and through our
connectedness we can give of our very being and not be spent,
we can do for others and experience the joy of fulfillment
rather than the pain of absence and loss.
May this Easter time truly make us blades of grass;
possessing the transforming love of God in the center of our
lives. May we all rejoice in our shared “stem” with the Risen
One and with each other!