Consider the miracle of a single seed, a seed so small you can barely see it, and yet containing within it the power to release life in the form of a great harvest or magnificent garden.

After this long winter, the planting season is now underway. Carefully, farmers and gardeners place seeds and plantings in the soft, warm ground. The nutrients of the soil, water and fertilizer break open the life within the seed. Roots are established; the first green stalks and stems break through the soil and into the open air; stems and branches and vines begin to grow.

Part of the miracle is that the fruit of the now transformed seed both gives life and contains life: the harvested crop will give sustenance to you and me and the rest of creation, and within those fruits are the small seeds that will continue the cycle of life in the next planting season.

Many metaphors have been employed to explain the Holy Trinity of the Father, Son and Spirit. The great eighth-century Eastern theologian St. John of Damascus saw “the Father as a root, the Son as a branch, and the Spirit as the fruit, for the substance of these three is one.” Today we celebrate the heart of our Gospel-centered faith: our belief in the God who reveals himself as Father, the Giver of life; as Son, the Word who unites us to God and to one another through his Gospel of reconciliation and peace; as Spirit, who enables us to realize God’s love in our lives and to bring that love to others in our imitating the humble and generous servanthood of God’s Christ.

Deacon Jay Cormier