Today’s Gospel is fit for funerals. It promises hope and delivers consolation. Families pray in hope that nothing of the self-giving they experienced in the life of their loved one will ever be lost in those it touched. Consolation comes in the harvest of new life rising in the creative generosity of the next generation.
The Johannine Jesus uses agricultural images to preview his selfless dying on the cross that yields the harvest of all peoples gathered under one God. Jesus’ saving action released an energy in the world that enlivens us even now to put into practice those attitudes Jesus prescribed for bringing people together in communion under the rule of love.
The seed dying to yield a harvest images death as an end with a future. Through death, we become more, not less. The fruitfulness of one’s life comes after death, too, not only before. Our lives are forever connected to one another by what we sow. As the saying goes, “We reap what we sow.” We reap the harvest of living in right relationship with God and neighbor when we put into practice Jesus’ rule of self-giving love by sowing seeds of hospitality to welcome the stranger, seeds of serenity to bear wrongs patiently, and seeds of solidarity to accompany the lonely.
The goodness that lives on is love’s rich harvest. For this reason, we pray at funerals in hope that nothing we have known of the selfless love in the life that once touched us will ever be lost in our own.
