The corn must die: Holy Tuesday musing

Embedded in the very fabric of nature is the death and resurrection of our Lord. I always feel a bit bad for people who live south of the Equator, because they don't get to experience the springtime rebirth of all creation while observing Holy Week and Easter. Creation joins the setting of the stage. Old twigs are raked away, dead leaves removed. Farmers burn last year's remaining grasses and prepare the soil for a new year of growth. And the new growth is already begun. Flowers can now be seen, and new blooms show up everywhere. The smell of Easter lilies will soon overwhelm us even in the churches. Life is reborn. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." This, incidentally, is one reason the Song of the Three Children is so appropriate at the Easter Vigil, with its exhortation to all created things to praise the Lord.