This has been a particularly cold and snowy winter here in New York. I never would have thought that writing a blog post about a blizzard that happened a century ago would somehow coincide with two blizzards hitting the Northeast to begin 2026! However, now as the weather is starting to warm, we are turning to welcome Spring this Friday, March 20th. Melting snow, singing birds, blooming crocuses are early signs that spring is awakening and, like many people, I’m excited for its return! Earth’s rebirth after the slumber of winter is dramatic, colorful, and joyful! From death comes the gift of new life.
As we approach the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Maryknoll Lay Missioner Marj Humphrey reminds us that we teach children about life, death and resurrection through the changing seasons and planting seeds. Just as we await and anticipate Spring’s arrival, we also await the Resurrection of Jesus. As a companion to Marj’s reflection, please also take a moment to meditate on former Maryknoll Lay Missioner Vicki Armour-Hileman’s poem that places us in the hands of God as seeds to be planted.
“We have begun the last week in Lent, and the readings today heighten our anticipation of the Resurrection. We have done our best to sacrifice, to pray, to reflect on our weaknesses, and now we anticipate the Resurrection.
And yet, aren’t most ‘resurrections’ unanticipated? The joy, the awe coming from great and unexpected things? We teach our children, grandchildren, students, about life, death, and resurrection through gardens, through planting seeds for school projects. And we delight in their surprise at seeing an unexpected form of life burst forth for the first time. We mourn the loss of an elder, feel palpable grief and sorrow, only to be caught off guard by a new birth in the family, or a wedding, that suddenly brings unexpected balm to our wound. Or we are given a surprising insight, in the midst of everyday life, through a person from an altogether other culture and belief. […]
Resurrection is life… and mystery. […] Some ethnic groups of Kenya believe that the afterlife of an individual, their ‘resurrected life,’ is actually their children living on in this world. Likewise, among many, there is a strong sense of the living dead, a belief that the ancestors are alive and well, still present among us, though no longer visible in the body. One of my favorite traditions in Kenya is the ritual first drink at family gatherings. Before a celebration can begin, the first drink is dipped out of the communal pot and poured into the ground ‘for the ancestors.’ It says, ‘You are here with us. You still live among us. You are still living, you have not died!’
My reflections on these images – that of dried seeds blossoming into new life, our children as some sense of our resurrection, our ancestors as the living dead to be revered – bring many questions. How can we better safeguard our earth so that generations of children who come after us may live on in the glory of creation? Will our libations for the ancestors be tainted with the blood of our wars and violence against others, or tainted with our unfettered greed or blind prejudice toward those with whom we live our daily lives? Or will we honor them with lives of goodness and justice?
Belief in the Resurrection presents us with the challenges that Christ gave us through his own life of service, his sacrifices, his dying to self. It is a holy challenge and a passionate challenge. We have rich symbolism awaiting us: the paschal fire – the light that banishes darkness and gives light to our paths, the fire that gives life.
I offer you a prayer of the Maasai people of Kenya and Tanzania:
Receive this holy fire.
Make your lives like this fire,
A holy life that is seen,
A life that has no end,
A life that darkness does not overcome.
May this light of God in you grow.
Light a fire that is worthy of your heads.
Light a fire that is worthy of your children.
Light a fire that is worthy of your fathers.
Light a fire that is worthy of your mothers.
Now go in peace. May the Almighty protect you
today and all days.”
5th Sunday of Lent by Marj Humphrey
A Maryknoll Liturgical Year: Reflections on the Readings for Year A
Edited by Judy Coode and Kathy McNeely
“Into Your Hands
Into your hands I place my life, O God
Take me and plant me like a seed.
Deep in the earth does the acorn know what it will be?
The seed breaks open and dies
in order to become what is unknown
but intended all along.
So we each live in the darkness of our own night.
Seeds in our shells, we must die to ourselves,
in order to come to new light.
So, O God, plant me deep in your love,
break me open to see me free.
High on the hill, rain falls into a stream.
It flows to the river and then to the sea.
Like water on water, we are one
and we join with our own.
As we’re loved by the Father,
we love one another.
This is the journey home.
Pilgrims at heart, we hear God’s call.
The journey is all.
Love is the way to begin.
So into your hands, I place my life, O God.
Take me and plant me like a seed.
Vicki Armour-Hileman, MMAF,
Maryknoll, New York”
A Maryknoll Book of Prayer
Edited by Michael Leach and Susan Perry
May this Lenten season bring you peace, strength, and reflection. Wishing you a blessed Easter!
