He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.  The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.  But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”

We first acknowledge that the seed, that is, the Word, has been sown in our hearts by another – we have not done the sowing so let no one pride themselves on the seed growing within them, or indeed that they themselves are a seed growing within the world.

”He does not know how” – the Spirit blows where it wills, you neither know where it comes from, nor where it goes.

Next we see that the growth of the seed is a lengthy process, for which the sower himself patiently waits.  How is it, then, that we seek to see the full grain appear so quickly?  We often wish to become saints overnight, yet it is clear that there are lengthy stages to our spiritual growth that we must patiently endure.

The seed itself must die.  Then the stalk is sent out to receive the sunshine for growth, that is the intellect born to receive the knowledge and wisdom of God, which feeds the structure.  The head then starts to appear, that unit which will later support the grain.  Thus the head is a loving charity toward God and neighbor, heroic even, without which there can be no harvesting of us.  The full grain is the full realization of a life lived in loving charity, born out of a blossoming knowledge of God.