We have only to look at an ear of wheat, and mark how the original seed has been increased, perhaps 50 times over, to see the generosity and goodness of God, so different from the greed and malice of humankind.

But in order to understand the true nature of God, the message of the harvest has to be completed by the message of the life and death of Our Blessed Lord, of God himself made man.  For while God’s universal goodwill is shown by his generosity in the harvest, his universal love is revealed by his self-sacrifice upon the Cross for all humankind.

For the essence of all love, whether human or divine, is a generosity that costs the giver: and when we look at a crucifix and remember that God willingly went through all that, not for his own sake but for ours – then we see how, in his surpassing love, his generosity cost him all he had.  Thus in the Crucifixion God’s generosity and sacrifice merged together in one sublime action, in the costly gift of his whole self.