Daily Meditation: Thursday, May 20, 2004

Ear of wheat - similarities between its adventures and the ordeals of human beings

05/20/2004

The life of an ear of wheat – what an extraordinary adventure! It is cut down by human beings, tied up in sheaves, beaten, and sent to the mill to be ground by the millstone. When it has been reduced to flour, it is mixed with water and kneaded well, then put in the oven and cooked. And just when it thinks this series of ordeals is coming to an end, the knife cuts it in slices and the teeth of human beings chew it! It is good to meditate on the great teaching contained in the life of an ear of wheat, because the evolution of human beings unfolds in the same way. In the course of innumerable ordeals, they are cooked and processed until, like wheat, they finally become bread, nourishing and golden brown, ready to be offered in sacrifice for the salvation of humanity.