Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Health Vailankanni

It was in a garden that Christ was both arrested and buried: he grew in this garden and there he was also brought back to life. Thus he became a tree... You too, then, should sow Christ in your garden... With Christ grind the mustard seed, tread it down and sow faith. Faith is hard pressed when we believe in Christ crucified. Paul pressed faith hard when he said: "When I came to you proclaiming the mystery of God, I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified" (1Cor 2:1-2)... Now, we sow faith when we believe in the Lord's Passion following the Gospel or the readings from the apostles and prophets. In a manner of speaking, we sow faith when we cover it with soil that has been dug over and broken up with the flesh of the Lord... For whoever has believed that the Son of God became man believes that he died for us and believes that he was raised for us. Therefore, I am sowing faith when I set the sepulchre of Christ at the centre of my garden. Do you want to know that Christ is a seed and that it is he who is sown? "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies it bears much fruit" (Jn 12:24)... It is Christ himself who says so. So he is both a grain of wheat since he "fortifies the hearts of men" (Ps 104[103]:15), and a mustard seed, since he warms men's hearts... He is a grain of wheat when it is a matter of his resurrection, since the Word of God and the proof of his resurrection nourish the soul, increase hope and strengthen love – for Christ is "the bread of God come down from heaven" (Jn 6:33). And he is a mustard seed because there is no more bitterness or harshness in speaking about the Passion of the Lord.

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