Holy Week Reflection: Tuesday in Holy Week

John 12:20-36

What must it be like to be a seed?
To grow within a mother plant
and be surrounded by food,
nourishment for a journey
as yet untaken
and without a clear destination?

What must it be like to be a seed?
To drop from mother to the ground
to be picked up by bird, bee, and butterfly,
carried by wind and hair and dung
until at last
a fertile patch is found?

What must it be like to be a seed?
To feel your insides swell until
you’re ready to burst,
and your shell fractures open
for new life
that emerges from the top of your skull?

What must it be like to be a seed?
To die already buried
under a mound of dirt as much life
as it is a moist, dark tomb,
and to never see
the fruits of the labor you endured?